Hertfordshire Senior County League (Step 7)
Saturday September 13, 2025, 2:57pm KO
Capital City College, Enfield

The Venue: The pitch was a 3G pitch inside a cage behind Capital City College (formerly Enfield College). Another match was simultaneously played on an adjacent grass pitch outside the cage. While the cage pitch’s surface is good, the cage barrier around pitch does not create a great viewing experience for spectators. The cage obscures spectator view for about 60% of the pitch, and fans have an unobstructed view only near the halfway line or close to either penalty area.

The Teams: The home team OIR have had a trophy laden 3 years during which they won Division 1 (Central and East) of the Middlesex County League (Step 8 ) in 2022, Division 3 of the Islington Midweek League in 2023, and the Somali British Champions League in 2024. They played a 4-2-1-3 formation (which I suspect was not planned, and was an outcome of their two wingers not being overly motivated about running back to defend!). Hinton played 4-2-3-1, and were in second place in the table. They usually finish in the top half of the league.

The Match: OIR had height advantage but Hinton had more substitutes. The match kicked off 3 minutes early at 2:57pm. The referee looked like a volunteer rather than a league sanctioned official. He had the mobility of a statue. It looked like there was a problem with the officiating crew because the match also had two volunteer “club linos” as referee’s assistants on either side – which caused animosity and problems between the teams and their coaching crews as we shall later see.

The match was even until OIR gave their visitors an absolute gift after 10 minutes. An OIR midfielder played a lofted crossfield pass to his left back who was not expecting it. The left back then played a back pass to his GK who also was not expecting it. Hinton’s forward intercepted the pass, and squared the ball for a teammate to score into the unguarded net.

One of Hinton’s central defenders was robustly built. He was OK on the ball and in the air but had the velocity of a cruise liner. It is rare to see players like that nowadays – even at this level. I am not “body shaming” the player and will respect this player by not naming him. Rather, I am pointing out his attributes which impacted the match.

In the 17th minute, OIR played a through ball from midfield (in the channel where the robust Hinton defender plays). OIR’s striker was in an offside position, but did not touch the ball. An OIR midfielder ran from deep, collected the ball, went around the Hinton GK and scored. Hinton’s “club lino” flagged for offside but the referee rightly overruled him and awarded the goal to OIR. The Hinton club lino’s decision to flag for offside led to a frank exchange of views between him and the OIR bench who called him “a cheat”. If the Hinton club lino contested the allegation against him in a libel lawsuit, I am very confident that he would lose (based on his habit of raising his flag for “offside” every time he saw an OIR player cross the halfway line and stay 3-5 feet onside). He also constantly flagged for “offside” when OIR players who were not interfering with play were beyond the last Hinton defender. This type of offside call would have been OK in 1980 – back when the offside law was indiscriminate about (in)active players.

Hinton seem to have a good team spirit as evidenced by their left back Cameron Hough (who described himself on his Instagram page as “a bang average ageing left back playing Step 7 football” – his words, not mine!) who made an overlapping run forward, and as OIR counter-attacked with him out of position, he asked his central midfielder Pedro Petrou to cover for him. Petrou did so with no fuss or complaining. It was only a few seconds, but I admired the good unselfish team play.

OIR almost did an action replay of their equalising goal in the 26th minute. They again played a through ball in the channel of their robust Hinton defender adversary. An OIR player ran through on goal and shot for the bottom right corner, but Hinton’s GK parried the ball wide with a strong one handed save. One of my pet peeves occurred on 29 minutes, when Hinton played themselves into trouble. Hinton’s GK played a dangerous ground pass into the middle of the pitch, OIR intercepted the pass but shot narrowly wide. OIR’s central midfielder #17 forced Hinton’s GK into another excellent save on 37 minutes.

OIR’s right winger #8 was having an utter nightmare. He kept playing hospital passes to team mates, letting the ball run out of play, giving the ball away to Hinton, and did not once beat the opposition left back Cameron Hough. His team mates and coach got frustrated with him. His confidence was so sapped that he started playing backwards passes rather than taking on the left back Hough. I have set the scene for what happens next. This same malfunctioning winger scored with a low shot from the edge of area to put OIR 2-1 up. He was the most unlikely goal scorer on the pitch.

Half time score: OIR 2 v Hinton 1

The Hinton club lino’s performance led to a half-time inquest between the referee, Hinton’s manager Alex Puchalla, and OIR’s coaching team who protested the biased performance of the Hinton club lino. Puchalla steadfastly defended his colleague and told the OIR protesters to go away (using two other more emphatic words).

The First Rush of Blood

5 minutes into the second half OIR’s striker (#20) Izzy had a rush of blood, and after a collision with Hinton’s captain Aaron Nash, kicked Nash off the ball. The ref had no option but to red card Izzy and reduce OIR to 10 men. Izzy tried to “take someone else with him” as they say, and on his way off the pitch barged Hinton’s central midfielder Harry Williams in the hopes that Williams would retaliate, also get sent off, and make it 10 v 10. To his credit, Williams did not take the bait and instead smiled at the scheme. I am surprised that OIR’s coach and team mates did not give their striker an earful for putting his team under pressure with such an act of stupidity.

The red card changed the game. After it, Hinton dominated possession, and OIR went into bunker mode and did not play a striker. The game was largely played in OIR’s half after the red card. OIR got everyone behind the ball, but looked dangerous when they counter-attacked. OIR’s 28 year old central midfielder Ali played like a man possessed after his team went down to 10 men. He kept possession intelligently, brought team mates into play, and after carrying the ball from the half-way line and playing a brilliant series of one twos all the way to the edge of the Hinton penalty area, hit a vicious right footed shot which crashed against the crossbar. It would have been a goal of the season contender had it gone in.

Ali’s performance was brilliant and he was the best player on the pitch. His performance so impressed even the opposition that they muttered among themselves that “he is a joke” and Hinton midfielder Pedro Petrou asked him if he was in a professional club’s academy.

The Second Rush of Blood

Rather than take advantage of having more players than the opposition, a Hinton player decided it would be fairer to have both teams reduced to 10 men, gave some back chat to the ref, and got sin binned for dissent (for 10 minutes).

Hinton thought they had equalised late in the game but the referee disallowed it after the OIR club lino flagged for offside. When Hinton’s coach Alex Puchalla disputed the decision, his OIR counterpart used a grassroots version of “VAR” by showing him footage of the disallowed goal on his phone. After viewing it, Puchalla agreed that “it was tight” (which was as good as an admission that it was correctly disallowed for offside).

As the game wore on, the constant defending and counter-attacking made OIR play deeper and deeper, and they started to tire. A few minutes after the disallowed goal, an own goal by OIR’s central defender equalised for Hinton and made 2-2 in the last 5 minutes.

A few minutes later Hinton’s left back Hough centered the ball into the six yard box for a Hinton team mate to slide a last minute winner into the net. The goal was also controversial, because the sequence of play that led to the winner started from a wrong offside call. Hinton were offside in the build up, the OIR club lino flagged, but the referee either overruled or did not see him.

Final score: OIR 2 v Hinton 3

The sending off changed the match. OIR did not look like losing until they were reduced to 10 men. A totally self inflicted defeat which they can “thank” their petulant striker for.

Max