Regent’s last home game of the season saw the visit of Haringey Borough on a warm spring-like Saturday afternoon. A decent crowd of 342 turned out to see a crucial game which would decide their season’s outcome.

Regent lined up with a strong starting eleven of Turner; Gilbert, Thompson, Littlejohn, Gregan; Locke, Durling, Rudy Rocha, Barnby; and Valter Rocha and Blair up front. Flood, Bell, Ribchester and Hawes were on the bench.

Haringey retain their two Cypriot stars in Georgiou and Aresti but some of the old faces were no longer present. In particular, Coby Rowe now plies his trade for Sutton United in League 2.
Regent kicked off and Haringey were quickly into the match blocking the ball and winning an early free kick.

It became clear that both sides were looking to win the game and after six minutes a long ball out of the Regent defence saw the Haringey goalkeeper get booked for clattering into Aaron Blair outside the area. Regent were on the front foot with Chris Gregan’s long throws providing a constant threat with Blair curled the ball wide of the post and then Dom Locke nearly put the ball through to Valter Rocha.

After 20 minutes a Haringey corner was cleared and Blair got away on the Regent left. He cut inside the Haringey defence and fed the ball across to Valter Rocha who hit the ball back across the goal and into the far corner. Those watching on the far side were convinced that there was more than a touch of offside involved but there were no protests on the field and officials saw nothing wrong.

Regent pressed forward for the rest of the half with Blair hitting the outside of the post and Dom Locke putting a long range shot wide. Haringey moved Georgiou into midfield and played with three at the back and whilst they played some neat passing football they made no real chances.

Second half
No changes were made at half time.

Haringey showed more attacking intent in the early stages of the second half but where they made openings most of their efforts on goal all went extremely high and long. A regular shuttle of balls was returned from nearby gardens.

The games settled into an attritional struggle with Regent keen to extend their lead, Haringey trying to get back on terms, and Regent determinedly preventing them doing so. The watching fans wondered whether 1-0 would be enough?
Both sides made substitutions without any great effect, although Haringey did begin to look more threatening.

On 80 minutes the ball went out and the referee over-ruled his assistant and correctly awarded Regent a corner. Both centre backs went forward and Zak Littlejohn rose at the near post to head the ball down and into the top of the net to make it 2-0.

Regent spent a couple of minutes playing out the clock until Kane Gilbert got the ball in front of the club house. He chipped the ball forward to Aaron Bair who turned, saw the keeper advancing and lobbed the ball into the far corner of the goal to make it three -nil and game over.

Match Verdict
This was Regent’s biggest win of the season and was another outstanding all round team performance. The defence was solid at the back and potent in attack, Aaron Blair terrorised the Haringey defence for the entire 90 minutes and Charlie Durling won innumerable headers in midfield.

Secure from the threat of relegation Regent can look forward to a final match at league champions Worthing next week for what will be a football festival for both sides.