Rovers beat Hawks in last pre-season friendly

Barton proved durable opponents and were better going forward than Harlow. Hawks’ forwards Alex Read and Leon Antoine got little change from the visitors’ defence in the 90 minutes. Barton went ahead from a 19th minute free-kick. A header and shot was blocked before Peter Gatti stabbed the ball home. Two minutes later, Harlow were extremely unlucky not to be level. From a free-kick, Shane Stamp squeezed the ball over the line but neither the linesman or referee could see if the whole of the ball had crossed the line and no goal was given.
Barton’s second goal came on 55 minutes. Tom Guiney was allowed too much space before he shot home from 22 yards. Harlow exerted some pressure towards the end but the final killer pass was missing. Former Stortford left winger Junior Dadson came on as a second half substitute. Deployed as left back he showed electric pace going forward but was unable to produce anything tangible. However, his pace saved Harlow defensively on two occasions. The second period was also marked by a silly altercation when Hawks midfielder Jordan Fowler got involved in a spat with Barton players and had to be pulled away by teammates. Harlow will need to be sharper when their Ryman League division one north campaign starts at Soham Town Rangers next Saturday.

Report supplied by the Harlow Star