What can we learn from this entertaining contest? For Ware it was the realisation that they might just have come through to the other side of a worrying start to the season with their morale intact and expectations raised. More importantly, concerns about the effect of injuries on the team can perhaps be put to bed.
Two regular full backs were missing along with centre back Jack Grosvenor. Absent too was Anthony Wordsworth who had been at the core of Saturday’s winning performance. There was therefore an atmosphere of make do and mend with Jay Rolfe at right back and the centre back pairing of Leigh Rose and Josh Okotcha.
Did I say make do and mend? Maybe we have to accept that this was a perfectly acceptable line up albeit one forced on Paul Halsey by circumstances. But if necessity has been the mother of invention, a word for the midwife. Joe O’Brien has returned as coach to the club and it has made a difference. Halsey has been on the phone looking for players but maybe his best call was to O’Brien to persuade him to come back to the role he had two seasons ago.
There is still though the need to find players who can make a difference and perhaps one has been found. In this case it is Matthew Ireland, released by Northampton Town at the end of last season he came in at left back. Confident on the ball and reading the game well, he had a very encouraging debut.
So, the players were there, just throw in some high intensity play and you have an opening period to the game which Ware bossed. They might even have had more than the one goal they scored but had to be content with Theo Ofori’s third minute opener.
Jay Rolfe, who seemed to have grown quickly into the full back position vacated by the injured Finlay Titchmarsh, put a cross into the six yard area. Keeper Liam Gooch, in a mistake that was so unlike the rest of his performance, failed to hold on to it and the ball fell loose. After a brief scramble for the ball by both sides there was Ofori hitting home from close range.
The best chance to double the lead came on twenty six minutes when Rolfe’s header from beyond the far post was cleared off the line. By this point however the visitors had recovered their composure and Ware had lost Khale Da Costa to an injury.
Stotfold were getting into the game and two minutes after the goal line clearance they had their equaliser. This time it was Ware who failed to properly clear an attack and the ball fell to Pierce Mitchell. He was not so close to goal as Ofori had been but achieved the same result. Just as Ware had the best of the opening period so Stotfold turned things round and half time came with them having the better of things.
There was much more of an end to end feel to the game in the second half as both sides strove to score. Sam Mayuma came on after sixty minutes and, with Ofori on the right, gave Ware two traditional wide men to try to open up the visiting defence. They did their best and chances came though mostly in the form of shots hit high or wide.
It was the same at the other end where Stotfold also had the problem of trying to get behind their opposing defenders. They couldn’t do it and in truth neither keeper was much troubled in the second period.
Ware would have liked to double up on Saturday’s win especially to celebrate Halsey’s 350th game as manager but a draw was a fair result. It was the first time since the earliest games of the season that Ware had gone two league matches without defeat. The result and performance represent a foundation on which to build for the rest of the season.
Stotfold looked strong in defence and will be a problem for anyone in the league. They too will have wanted a win to but remain in the play-off places with three other sides on twenty points.
Line-ups and cards
Ware: Fred Burbidge, Jay Rolfe, Matthew Ireland, Leigh Rose (C), Josh Okotcha, Max Granville (Rylee Kitteringham 86mins), Reece Beckles-Richards (Sam Mayuma 60mins), Jack Taylor, Josh Hutchinson, Khale Da Costa (Rechan Esprit 15mins), Theo Okotcha. Unused subs: Riley Warmerdam, Herbie Townsend.
Yellow cards: Josh Okotcha 64mins, Max Granville 66mins.
Stotfold: Liam Gooch, Enock Ekongo, Hugo Valencia, Pierce Mitchell (C), Lewis Thomas, Simo Mbonkwi, Matthew Moloney (Ciaran Maher 93mins), Matty Harriott, Jemale Olayinka (Lucas Jordan 56mins), Dylan Logan (Joseph Beardon 71mins), Taylor Franklin. Unused subs: Aaron Diviney, Tyrone Mliswa.
Yellow card: Dylan Logan 63mins.
