Regent outplayed by classy Haringey

Regent travelled to north London on a hot Saturday afternoon to face an unbeaten Haringey Borough side who have followed up last season’s exploits in the FA Cup and league play-offs by overcoming the departure of several of that side and integrating a raft of new players into their fast and well organised style of play.

There were a number of absentees for Regent and with only a limited number of players available Tom Rothery fielded: Charlie Turner; Pip Boyland, Matt Cripps, Jake Gould, Ricky Griggs; Rigers Kabashi, Jake Turner, Amir Berkane, Lamell Howell; Romario Dunne and Billy Hunt. Charlie Lindoe, Jordan Barnett and newcomer Jack Mahon were named as substitutes.

Regular away supporters couldn’t help noticing that Haringey’s success on the pitch, and their business model of financing the club by off the field activities and offering free season tickets has brought about a big increase in support.

Since neither Spurs nor Arsenal were playing at home it was, perhaps, unsurprising to see a crowd of 350 turn out when only a few seasons ago it was more like 50.

The group in the top corner of the stand had brought old fashioned clapper bells and rattles and kept up some largely well-orchestrated singing for the full 90 minutes.

Rigers Kabashi kicked off for Regent and started off a neat move down the left hand side by Jake Turner and Ricky Griggs.

The first twenty minutes of the game were fairly even with Regent trying to play the ball around on the ground but without creating any clear cut chances and Haringey looking dangerous on the break and forcing one good save from Charlie Turner.

After 25 minutes the referee took the opportunity of a pause in play to call for a drinks’ break and all the players came over to the touchline to take on water and no doubt to receive instructions from the two managers.

Almost immediately after play resumed a poor pass meant that Regent lost possession and Anthos Solomou got clear on the Haringey right.

Seeing goalkeeper Turner covering the gap on the near post Solomou drove the ball into the far corner of the net to take the lead.

Minutes later Turner denied Solomou a second goal from a similar position and Haringey put the clearance wide of the post.

Having got themselves into the lead Haringey were content to sit back and let Regent come onto them and then hit them on the break with Coby Rowe spraying balls around from the back for their forwards, particularly the impressive Solomou, to run on to.

Shortly before half time a misplaced pass resulted in Regent conceding a corner. It looked to be an easy take for the keeper but, surprisingly, Turner seemed to be unable to get up to the ball, missed it, and Coby Rowe had a simple job to nod the ball in at the back post.

Two minutes were added on and at the half-time break Regent’s goalkeeping coach strode onto the pitch towards the officials, no doubt wanting to complain about impeding the goalkeeper at the corner, but was waved away by the referee.

Second half

Neither side made any changes at half time and only two of the Regent substitutes came out to play the ball around in the half time interval with Jordan Barnett evidently still suffering the effect of a knock the previous week.

Regent started the second half brightly with Billy Hunt getting away down the left and winning a corner which went long and out.

In response Coby Rowe pinged a long ball from the middle of the Haringey half out to the left wing and an excellent cross found Anthos Solomou on the right edge of the goal area from where he smashed the ball into the roof of the net.

This effectively killed the game and although Tom Rothery made a change, bringing Charlie Lindoe on for Rigers Kabashi in the 55th minute the most significant action involved Charlie Turner pulling off two more good saves including another attempt by the irrepressible Solomou. In return Regent could only count one attempt by Charlie Lindoe which went wide of the goal.

After 65 minutes Haringey made their first substitution bringing on Scott Mitchell for Konstantinos Alexandrou and the referee allowed another drinks’ break during which the Haringey players were also given ice towels to combat the heat.

Once again, straight after play restarted after the drinks break, Haringey scored. This time Coby Rowe played the ball out to the right where it was collected by right back Rakim Richards, who showed an exceptional turn of speed and was not flagged off-side. Almost inevitably, when the cross came in, Anthos Solomou was there to score his third and put the game beyond any doubt.

The Regent players protested in unison for an off-side call but the officials would have none of it and whilst Richards had shown a degree of acceleration that even Usain Bolt would have been proud of, the Regent defence were guilty of being over-confident in assuming that the off-side call was going to come.

At this point, and being 4-0 up after 72 minutes Haringey made a double substitution with Solomou and Staunton being replaced.

Haringey continued to make chances with a free kick from Coby Rowe going high and Charlie Turner making yet another good save, this time from Cyprus international Georgios Aresti.

For their part Regent continued to try to play passing football and after 77 minutes replaced Romario Dunne with Jack Mahon. Five minutes later, Mahon and Lamell Howell combined well and fed the ball to Charlie Lindoe who found himself unmarked in the middle of the Haringey penalty area. Needing no second bidding, he coolly stroked the ball into the net with his left foot.

It was no more than a consolation but was still a good piece of play by all those involved.

As the game drew to a close Regent once again lost possession in a dangerous area and it was played through to Aresti on the edge of the penalty area who made no mistake in putting the ball into the right hand corner of the net to make it 5-1

Match Verdict

Haringey are currently unbeaten and top of the league for a few simple reasons. Firstly they have a number of talented players including Rowe, Solomou, who would not be out of place at a higher level than this and Aresti, who has two international caps to his name.

Secondly, they are a very quick and well organised side who ought to be one of the front runners in the League if they can keep this group of players together.

For their part, Regent played better than they have in some of their previous two matches against less impressive opposition. As always it is necessary to carry this approach forward into the more winnable fixtures in this League.

Paul Ketchley