Frustrations continued for Danny Chapman’s side last night as AFC Welwyn travelled to The Harlow Arena; the away side had started the season well, having been unbeaten in the league since their opening day defeat. They progressed to being in 3rd place ahead of yesterday’s game, with the Hawks sitting 16th initially.

As someone who tries to be honest in every match report, I would be the first to tell you if we had an amazing game or, in this instance, if we got unlucky. But to be honest, that just wasn’t the case yesterday. It had become a bit of a worrying sight, nothing was really coming together for the Hawks, particularly going forward. In my opinion, it was like there was no fluidity in our attacks. We started this season feeling that we could have scored a number of goals in the opening games and that we were wasteful then, but this time I wouldn’t even say that. We didn’t really create the chances in the first place, which has been the case for a few games now.

I personally believe, like others, that the game last night was a winnable one. To give credit where credit is due, AFC Welwyn took their chances, but we needed that extra piece of the puzzle ourselves to thwart that and create genuine goalscoring opportunities.

For much of the game, our crosses into the box, something in which we have previously been excellent at, were predominantly poor; either over-hit or mis-hit. Dwade James looked much better and like he’s beginning to gain fitness, but once he came off, we lacked physical presence upfront.

Stef Georgiou looked good and looked most as if he would change the game after he came on off the bench, which was a positive, but the goal never arrived.

The very beginning of the game was when we had our best spell. The most notable chance came when Arley Barker played Josh Gruby in on goal with a great ball down the right-hand side. Gruby was unable to beat Ashton Broome with his effort. At this point in the game, the Hawks had a decent bit of possession and looked a much-improved side from Saturday’s defeat.

Unfortunately though, this is where the promising spells ended for most of the game. The Hawks’ defence was seriously leaking and this allowed Reece Cameron to get a relatively mild effort at goal but the next opportunity Welwyn created rung alarm bells.

Reece Cameron and Usman Lalustani had managed to bully their way into the box, shielding off red defenders in their way and the latter of the two laid it off for Markel Cousins on the edge of the six yard box, with Cousins’ effort being blocked on the line by Dan Heald. Cameron followed the effort up and Louis Stead made a heroic block, before Teddy Jones whacked it away.

Markel Cousins was probably Welwyn’s biggest threat throughout the game and he found them a first-half lead after receiving the ball with his back to goal, shielding it, playing a ball out-wide to Tonye Joseph, who immediately played a low cross back into the danger zone, which Cousins finished off. The forward was afforded enough time to take a touch before getting his shot away from 6 yards out and beating James Pellin.

The game petered out a bit towards the end of the first-half, with Arley Barker getting a shot away which curled wide and a Welwyn midfielder deciding to have a crack from distance which James Pellin collected. The romans lead at the break by a goal to nil.

The second half pretty much continued as the first-half ended; Welwyn were on-top in terms of attacking situations and the Hawks were struggling to deal with it. Markel Cousins looked to continue to cause havoc for the Harlow defence and did so when he received a cross, cut onto his right and finished well into the bottom-left corner, doubling the Welwyn lead. There were four Harlow defenders in front of Cousins but he managed to pick out the bottom-left.

Harlow finally fired back a few minutes later as Joe Dearman delivered a good cross from a free-kick which was finished at the back-post by Raheem Gray, giving Harlow a lifeline, with plenty of time still to play in the game.

One of our best spells in the game came after our goal as Josh Gruby and Denzel Effah missed solid chances, the latter of which Effah should have shot slightly earlier, with Welwyn’s defence rushing back.

Coree Wilson came close with a practically free header on the edge of the six yard box after Keir Dickson crossed it into him, and Welwyn’s finishing continued to be rather wasteful, to the benefit of Harlow who remained in the game.

As previously mentioned, Stef Georgiou came off the bench and made a positive impact going forward and he did get a couple of shots off himself but none of them had enough power or conviction to trouble Broome.

Any hope of a Harlow comeback was crushed when James Pellin attempted to kick it long but was closed down by Coree Wilson. Teddy Jones tried to head it away but he headed it straight into the path of Lee Dykes who half-volleyed it past Pellin, taking his goal well and sticking the nail in the Harlow coffin.

In the late stages of the game, we continued to get forward, but Welwyn were smart and knew to delay the game when possible, and they never really allowed us to get at them. A few half chances occurred, but nothing that you would’ve expected us to score from.

The final whistle was blown, sealing our 1-3 defeat. A deflating defeat. Overall, we seemed more up for this game than Saturday’s defeat to Kings Langley. The passion was there in spells, and we went for it, but AFC Welwyn were ultimately intelligent and totally thwarted what we tried to do, which led to another disappointing defeat.

Despite the result, we thank you all for your continued support, and hope to see you on Saturday as we travel to Tring Athletic away in the league.