Season of goodwill as hawks battle for three points

Leon Antoine gave the Hawks the lead on 11 minutes when Alex Read picked the ball up on the right hand side and delivered a perfect cross for Antoine to head home from 8 yards out. Barkingside equalised on 25 minutes when Dan Callaway headed home at the back post from a corner. Both sides were finding it difficult to take control and it looked like the teams would go in level at half time, but a bizarre episode of events unravelled on 43 minutes when Barkingside put the ball out for a throw in on the edge of there own box, so one of there injured players could get treatment. When the game restarted with a Harlow throw Junior Dadson attempted to throw the ball back to the Barkingside goalkeeper but one of there defenders jumped for the ball and headed it straight to the feet of Hawks striker Alex Read, he had the ball but looked unsure what to do with the ball, score or put out for a goal-kick, his decision was to score with supporters shouting for him to put the ball in the back of the net. This lead to a delayed restart as Barkingside were furious at what had happened, after about 4-5 minutes Hawks manager Danny Chapman told his players to let Barkingside walk the ball up field and equalise unchallenged, which Jason Fontaine did. The Referee then blew for Half-time and proved to be a strong talking point at half time.
Harlow Town were the better side in the second half but Matt Gulfer son of former Harlow player Gurzel Gulfer gave Barkingside a 3-2 lead on 47 minutes. The Hawks then stepped the tempo up and scrappy goals from Antoine (58) and Read (81) won the game for Harlow and extend the unbeaten run in all competitions to 12 games and make it 7 wins on the trot. Substitute Shane Stamp nearly grabbed a 5th in stoppage time when he had a shot tipped onto the post by Chris Clark.