Hawks win at Swifts

Chapman's men dominated possession and chances in the first half, forcing 11 corners in the opening 45minutes. But the Hawks could not find any clear cut chances, David Cowley, James Smith and Junior Appiah all going close but not really testing the Swifts goalkeeper Danny Sambridge. As for Swifts they could only muster a handful of sorties into the Harlow half.

The Second half started totally different, with Heybridge storming out of the traps and causing the Hawks defence all sorts of problems, and on 48 minutes the Harlow defence failed to clear from the penalty area and Billy Hunt hit a ferocious shot which rattled Ed Thompsons crossbar. On 51 minutes Swifts defender Aaron Gayle brought down James Smith on the edge of the box and Referee Stuart Franklin had no option but to give the defender a 2nd Yellow Card and then a Red, which saw Gayle march down the tunnel.
From the resulting Free Kick man of the match David Cowley hit a sweet shot into the back of the net to give Harlow the lead.

Manager Chapman then brought on Alex Read for Billy Jones, Read was returning after a slight Hamstring which he tweaked at Barkingside. On 55minutes Harlow extended there lead to two when Michael Toner headed home another great Cowley free kick.
But 3 minutes later Swifts forced a corner and the cross was met by the head of Reece Morgan and he made it 1-2.
8 minutes later and it was nearly 1-3, Read made space for himself in the area and hit a shot which Sambridge pushed out, but only to Junior Appiah, but he could not keep his shot down as it fizzed over the bar.

But poor defending on 71 minutes saw Swifts level, a long hopeful ball punted forward and with the wind swirling round Josh Urquhart misjudged a header back to the goalkeeper and Billy Hunt was onto it like a flash and finished well past Thompson.
The equaliser seemed to wake Harlow up again and they finished the last 20 minutes in control, and on 81 minutes substitute Jared Small put the Hawks 2-3 up with a header at the back post and Alex Read killed the game off on 86 minutes when he rifled home from around 10 yards giving Sambridge no chance in the Swifts goal.

Manager Danny Chapman was delighted with the performance and a valuable 3 points but knows that the defence must tighten up at the back with some massive games coming up.