Merciless Gavin Cockman Sinks NW London

As a football club, being top of the league is always an aspiration and an ambition that you no doubt strive to be. The journey to get there is far from easy, but staying there is a whole ‘nother ball game. Many teams have failed at the first hurdle in the past, but yesterday Danny Chapman’s men stood tall and won terrifically to remain top of the Thurlow Nunn League.

220 reds filling the St Margaretsbury ground on Tuesday was impressive in itself; a classic atmosphere that seemed to fade over recent years reappeared. Not only did this return, but it was brought home yesterday.

NW London are an interesting side. Before the game, they found themselves positioned 18th in the league, despite playing an attacking brand of football. Getting points on the table is something they’ve struggled with in the last few years, finishing 17th last season and narrowly escaping the drop.

After our monumental midweek victory, Chappo decided that no changes to our starting lineup were needed, and we went ahead with the same XI, and substitutes.

NW London begun the game on the front foot, attacking with an abundance of energy but no real cutting edge to their game. As a result, an early opportunity from Juan Tobon went begging as he struck it wide from 18 yards.

Down the other end, it seemed inevitable we would score; Alex Luque’s cross was headed straight into the path of Junior Dadson and a perfect half-volley opportunity presented itself. If not for the heroics of Volodymyr Levchuk, the early lead would’ve been ours again. However, with 96 goals scored for the club, it’s highly likely that the chances will continue to fall for Junior and he will soon join the 100 club.

Shortly after, James Pellin played yet another scrumptious ball over everybody and into Junior Dadson who, with another chance at a beautiful half-volley, struck it just wide of the post as the Hawks continued to threaten.

It wasn’t long at all before the first of three Gavin Cockman goals occurred. In our defensive half, Jack Martin slid in like a warrior, winning the ball back and playing a perfect ball over the top and into Gavin Cockman. With work to do, he drove like a bulldozer taking no prisoners of the defenders before affording himself the space to shoot resulting in his 7th goal of the season, low driven straight into the bottom left corner. Harlow deservedly had the advantage.

Chances continued to fall for the reds, with another Alex Luque pinpoint cross landing perfectly for Gavin Cockman, but once again Volodymyr Levchuk produced a magnificent save and the lead remained one.

Despite having a decent first half, the second half is where things began to cook for the Hawks. However, the first chance of the second half fell for NW London and Juan Tobon, who struck it well on target and James Pellin now had to produce brilliance – making an astonishing save before Fabion Simms got it clear.

Red and white dominance soon begun as Chapman’s side played slick, fast football and therefore created more chances. A great bit of team play led to Roman Percil crossing it in and Gavin Cockman was there again, with a second goal for himself, and a second of the game for Harlow.

Just two minutes later, we scored what will be a definite contender for goal of the month; Ashton Wilkins brought the ball forward from our half, playing the ball into the path of Alex Luque who immediately fed it to Roman Percil down the line who beat his man and left him for dead, putting a devastating cross into the box, on a plate for Gavin Cockman, who doesn’t miss from there. Gavin grabbed his hat trick and also his 9th goal in 11 games, extending the lead to 3.

It seemed we’d be grabbing our 3rd 4-0 win of the season when Junior Dadson found the net, but unfortunately the flag was up against him and the goal was ruled out.

The final whistle sounded and we fantastically retained our spot at the top of the league and will defend our spot once again for our 3rd game this season against Newbury Forest away on Tuesday evening.