St Panteleimon 2, Harpenden Town 3
This Saturday, the Saints hosted Harpenden Town at the Lantern ground with George Mina managing in place of George Frangeskou. The Saints needed a win to take second place in the league table.
The game was played in mixed weather conditions with a thunderstorm clouding the first half.
The Saints did not settle and were not playing their usual fluid passing game.
In the 8th minute a free kick from David Keenleyside was punched into his own net by the Saints goal keeper, Gustavo Guimaraes.
15 minutes in and the Saints began to find their rhythm, applying pressure with their pacey football.
The right midfielder (Ayub Albadri) gets played a ball through the midfield and scores a left foot curling shot into the top left hand corner.
The half ended one a piece, with both sides picking up a yellow card. The Saints, however, were looking the stronger side.
The second half begins and in the 1st minute, Ricardo Portello, was shown a red card for a second booking.
In the 4th minute, Hamza Meizou, gets a yellow whilst challenging for the ball in Harpendens goal area.
The Saints football continued to prevail and in the 12th minute, Jonathan Moura took a knock while playing a great ball through to Courtney Massey, who converted the ball home and the Saints went 2-1 up! Moura struggled to continue and was substituted in the 16th minute for George Androutsos. .
Harpenden also made 2 changes midway through the second half. Harpenden played patiently against a tiring 10 man Saints.
The Saints made another sub and brought on Thomas Magnitis.
St Panteleimon were sitting behind the half way line, keeping possession and catching Harpenden on the break a few times with chances to widen the scoreline.
In the 40th minute, Harpenden converted a cross from the head of Dan Palmer, 2-2!
Another corner for Harpenden in injury time allowed Mickey Shuttlewood to head it home for Harpenden to take the 3 points.
The Saints need to stay disciplined to avoid results going against them, despite how well they play.
Michael Sifonios
