After what can only be described as the bursting of our late-rising bubble on Saturday, in which we equalised against Dunstable Town, threw everyone forward and then got caught on the break and beaten in the final moments due to a Montel Brown goal, the Hawks picked themselves up and found three points against bottom of the league Crawley Green in Luton.

The whole game was truly dull, with very few clear-cut chances created and some poor football from both sides, but the positive is that we defended well, emerged victorious in the end and sit three points off the top of the league table.

Danny Chapman made a couple of changes going into the game, with Stef Georgiou and Jesse Ansen named on the bench, and Josh Gruby and Raheem Gray starting in their place.

The Hawks created a good chance early on to take the lead as Raheem Gray was played one-on-one with Johnson with a ball over-the-top from Arley Barker, but the striker was unable to direct his strike away from the Crawley Green keeper, smashing it at him.

Down the other end, Ciaron Maher struck one from distance which forced James Pellin to make a decent save to his right.

After twenty-six minutes, the goal came for Harlow as Louis Stead whipped in a cross from the right-hand side, which was headed away by Alfie Cain but Denzel Effah was lurking at the back-post, taking a good touch and touching it past Johnson with the top of his boot. Harlow had a first-half lead.

Effah looked to capitalise on this momentum and had another shot with the outside of his boot but this one travelled narrowly wide.

James Pellin came up with the save of the game after the ball came in to Maher and he hit it from close-range towards the bottom-right corner, with the Harlow keeper tipping it wide.

The final chance of a quiet half came when Chris Blunden hit a free-kick into the top of the Harlow wall before the referee called time on the half, with the blues leading 0-1.

The Hawks missed a couple of half-chances as Josh Gruby had it laid off to him on the edge of the box, but his shot lacked conviction and went into the arms of Johnson. Raheem Gray also found himself with a chance to hit one from close-range with a volley, but he hit it over the bar.

A second goal however was on the horizon, as Denzel Effah did excellently well to win the ball back in his own half, travelling some distance before playing it down the line where Raheem Gray was sprinting onto it. Gray cut onto his right before shooting and hitting the right post. The ball bounced out and met Dwade James. A horror show and the back from Crawley Green led to the ball being in the back of the net. It was difficult to tell but it looked to be an own goal from Maher after it bounced off him into the back of the net. Regardless, the Hawks had their insurance goal against a team who had rarely looked like scoring.

It all kicked off after Michael Shamolo threw Teddy Jones to the floor. The referee’s decision following what happened was to book James Pellin, send off Shamolo and send off Louis Stead.

A couple of small chances followed and Harlow did put the ball in the net again, but it was deemed to be offside.

Overall, the Hawks were on top throughout the game and defended well, with the home side never really looking like scoring, but it was most definitely a dull game.

We thank you for your support and our focus now changes to Saturday’s FA Cup Preliminary Round fixture against Woodford Town, at home kicking off at 3pm.