It couldn’t have been a much worse start for Danny Chapman’s side as Teddy Jones was out-strengthed to the ball by Israel Ajana who then squared it across the box for Sakeel Balfour-Brown, who knocked it down the middle, but the ball travelled underneath a diving James Pellin and Kempston took the lead.

Harlow looked to fire back as Denzel Effah hit a free-kick goalwards, forcing Kurylowicz, former Spurs U23s goalkeeper, to dive down and make a save in the bottom-right corner. Effah forced another save out of him moments later, hitting a shot in pretty much the same spot, from the edge of the 18 yard box.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, things would take a turn for the worst as Teddy Jones missed a header from a Kempston long-ball, allowing Ayo Akinbobola to run past and put the ball in the net, doubling the Kempston lead early on in the first-half.

Not wasting a second, Harlow Town quickly got going again and won a free-kick in a good position. Josh Gruby whipped it into the box, where Teddy Jones had found some space at the back-post, tapping it past Kurylowicz, immediately making up for his previous error. Harlow quickly grabbed the ball and got on with it after this.

Soon after, Harlow had the ball in the net again after Raheem Gray picked up the pieces on a rebound, but he was deemed to be in an offside position so the goal did not stand.

The Hawks relentlessly pushed forward searching for an equaliser as Raheem Gray was picked out from a Denzel Effah cross. The forward chested it at goal from 6 yards out, but saw his shot saved. Then, from the corner, Dwade James flicked it at the front-post and it hit the left post of the goal.

Towards the end of the first half, Stef Georgiou was pulled back by Linus Kusi, who was shown a second yellow and Kempston were reduced to 10 men.

Shortly after, Harlow did find their equaliser after James Love headed it goalwards from a corner, it was supposedly cleared off the line but the referee deemed it to have crossed the line and awarded the goal to Harlow.

In what was the final chance of the first half, Nathan Mullins hit a shot for Kempston that was not too far away from the top-right corner, but the scores were level at the break.

Very little happened in the second half until Leon Cashman, Kempston manager was sent off for an incident by the touchline, leaving Kempston with 10 men and no manager pitchside.

Harlow eventually turned the game around when Denzel Effah crossed it into Stef Georgiou who got down low to head the ball into the top-left corner, making it 3-2 to Harlow.

The reds stuck the nail in the Kempston coffin when Dwade James threaded Stef Georgiou through on goal, who slid it past Kurylowicz to make it 4-2.

The game was later abandoned after an incident occurred in which an attendee of the game was accused of making a racist remark by the Kempston players, which then led to the Kempston team walking off the pitch. In amongst this, Kurylowicz was also sent off for Kempston.

We will not explicitly comment on this until more details have been made clear, but as a club we will not tolerate racism whatsoever, and anyone who engages in such behaviours, will have appropriate action taken against them.

Therefore, after the game was essentially abandoned, the final score was 4-2 to the Hawks, providing us with our first home league win of the season.

We thank you for your support and hope to see you at tomorrow’s local derby, as we face Wormley Rovers away from home.