THE BLUE BOYS KNOCKED OUT BY THE TIGERS

Tuesday night's game between Hatfield Town and London Tigers was played in front of the lowest home crowd The Blue Boys have attracted since they were promoted to the Spartan South Midlands League in 2008. Just 18 people ventured out in the pouring rain to watch The Dudley Lathom Memorial Premier Division Cup Second Round match at The Gosling Stadium.

The empty Gosling Stadium during the second half on Tuesday night

In the Premier Division both sides are struggling near the foot of the table with the visitors second from bottom and the hosts fourth from bottom. The Tigers have had a change of manager this season after Giorgi Minashvili resigned following a run of six defeats in the six opening games of the season. Armand Kavaja (a former player and physio with the club) has since taken over in the hot-seat and the club are hopeful he can turn things around and lift the Tigers away from the relegation zone.

Going into the game the Tigers had a record of one win in six league and cup games being a very welcome 2-0 home win against Leverstock Green on Saturday 17th November. The Blue Boys had lost their last six league and cup games conceding 33 goals in the process.

Prior to the game there had been a big downpour of rain in the local area which had stopped upon TheColdEnd's arrival. The pitch looked in good condition with a zippy feel to it from the rain that had fallen which after around twenty minutes started to fall again and didn't let up until the end of the game. Not the best of conditions for fans and players as it was cold as well.

HATFIELD TOWN'S LOWEST HOME CROWDS SINCE PROMOTION IN 2008 

18 - London Tigers           - Premier Division Cup - 20/11/2012
24 - Holmer Green            - Premier Division     - 24/09/2011
28 - Sporting Bengal United  - FA Vase 1st QR       - 10/09/2011
30 - Hertford Town           - Herts FA Charity Cup - 14/12/2010

The game wasn't the best footballing wise and had a rather tetchy feel to it. The referee had a busy night in booking a number of players from both sides for silly fouls committed when they didn't need to be and a bit of 'handbags' pushing and shoving.

Both sides plugged away with The Tigers just about playing the more polished football. With the rain getting worse and the game drifting towards 90 minutes the thoughts of the small amount of fans present went to extra time. The Tigers had other idea when Wadah Ahmidi blasted the ball home from the edge of the box with around 7 minutes left to make it 0-1. To The Blue Boys credit they didn't give up with Gerald Alle scoring in injury time to send the game into extra time.

In extra time Tiger's substitute Khalid Hassan capitalised on a through ball which really should of been put into Row Z by the home defender instead of shielding it waiting for his goal keeper to come out to claim it. Hassan got hold of the ball, rounded the keeper and passed the ball into the net to make it 1-2 and celebrate The Tigers first victory on the road since Saturday 7th April 2012 when they own 1-2 at Harefield United in the Premier Division.

TEAM LINE UPS
several subs were made by both sides but details unknown

HATFIELD TOWN	-	LONDON TIGERS
MARLIN CHICOWLAS	1	JAMIE ADIM
BEN HOLM	2	EMMANUEL NJODZEKA
JAY WELSH	3	LUIS MARTINS
KINGSLEY ELENYA	4	THIAGO PANZIN
MICKY NATHAN	5	ROBERTO ABSLONTE
JASON BECK	6	LARRY KWARTENG
CHRIS WEBB	7	ZURAB TUSIASHVILI
LAURENCE RISPOLI	8	JOAO RODRIGUES
DARYL SMITH	9	JABIR LARABA
MATT HODGES	10	WADAH AHMIDI
GERALD ALLE	11	TERENCE CARIBA
ADAM SAWYER	12	RAMAZI DARBAISEL
MATT CORRAN	14	LEON BEDEAU-FRANCIS
JOE BRUNT	15	KHALID HASSAN
CLETUS ISIRI	16	HELDER PAULO
DANIEL HOLLISTER	17	-

HTML Tables

Extended 15 minutes of match highlights are below. London Tigers are in orange and Hatfield Town in blue.