Next up – Hadley
Saturday, 17th January at Wodson Park, SG12 0UQ.
Pitching in Southern League, Divison One (Central); kick off 3pm.
Admission
Admission (card preferred but cash accepted) – Adults £10, Concessions £5, under 14 free with paying adult otherwise £2.50.
Printed programme on the gate for £2.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at https://warefc.co.uk/product/ware-v-hadley/
Our opponents
This is our third meeting of the season so I think you already know enough about them. That knowledge is mostly in terms of our two heavy defeats from earlier in the season. Paul Halsey is not the only one to see them as something of a jinx to us. A 5-1 home defeat in the FA Trophy when we played 85 minutes without a recognised keeper and then a 6-1 away defeat when we were at the nadir of our injury problems might be evidence of Paul’s view. Of course Hadley will see it differently. A coldly clinical demolition of the teams we put in front of them. Can we make amends this Saturday?
Form guide
The visitors are currently tenth compared to our sixth place in the table. They are six points behind Ware but with two games in hand meaning that a third victory would leave them able to overtake us. Following that 6-1 game in November Hadley went seven games without a win until a home victory over bottom side AFC Dunstable put them back on the right road. Two more wins followed both away from home with last week’s 4-1 beating of play-off candidates Barton Rovers suggesting they are back in top form.
We should have been at AFC Dunstable last week but the weather put a stop to that. We are left with the home defeat against Biggleswade as our most recent guide to form. Surely that was just too bad to be a good indication of our next performance. It was Ware’s first defeat after the return from the worst of the injury problems. Whilst we still have several players on the sidelines the expectation is of a much better performance this weekend.
Previous Meetings
We first met in a pre-season friendly in 1982 (a 1-1 draw with John Harding scoring our goal). We had won two and drawn two of our first four league meetings but Hadley have now won the last nine points available. They’re on a roll with the latest result being that 6-1 defeat at Brick Lane. Gabriel Chapps scored our consolation goal.
Commentary
Pete and Symon will be at the game if you can’t make it yourself. They’ll be broadcasting commentary from 2.55 at https://90minuteslivefootball.mixlr.com/events/4756521
Match officials
Our referee for this match is James Keane who took control of our match at London Lions back in August. The assistant referees are Sam Rose and Anthony Browne.
