The Hawks’ first away day of the season had arrived – a trip to Aveley against our former groundshares Cannons Wood, which always looked to be a game of interest. Having never beaten the home side, few would have expected Harlow to hit them for 5, but that was the outcome tonight.

In the absence of Teddy Jones, Jesse Ansen started today, fitting into the side well in the defence. As well as this, Denzel Effah signed today from West Essex. The left-back was named on the bench.

Cannons Wood were very quick to grab the early lead, with Nkwonta smashing one past James Pellin in just the eighth minute, and giving Harlow an immediate mountain to climb after sloppy defending from them.

It wasn’t long though before Harlow found their feet, and started to move the ball nicely, thirsty for an equaliser which would kill the home momentum. They almost found one when Ishaq set up Jack Martin excellently, who’s shot was blocked well in the box.

Continuing to pile on the pressure, Ruben Santos put in a good cross, which found the feet of Cav Clarke, who got a shot away. However, Alfie Marigliani did well to close the gap and make the save. Minutes later, Ruben picked him out again, and his shot made for a routine save for Marigliani.

Cannons Wood looked to double their lead when Brendon Osholake had a chance in the box, but hit his effort way over the bar.

Arley Barker later hit a great cross into the path of both Cav Clarke and Ishaq Ameen, both of whom failed to connect with it, and it was cleared off the line by Shala.

After a strong, yet fair challenge from Jack Martin on Osholake, the Cannons Wood defender retaliated, causing numerous players to run into the scene, with the end result being a red card for both Osholake and Hernan Mwanza for Cannons Wood, with Jack Martin going into the book for Harlow Town. With Cannons Wood down to 9 men, this provided a major chance for Harlow to capitalise and push for an equaliser.

From this moment onwards, it was pure Harlow dominance, which was to be expected having two extra men. Initially, Dan Heald found Jack Martin with a beautiful cross, but the left-back was unable to direct his header goalwards. Continuing to push forward, Arley Barker whipped in a cross, which bounced off the crossbar before being cleared away.

The next chance was a huge one and caused a large debate amongst the Harlow Town supporters. Ruben Santos whipped in a corner, and James Folkes got a slight touch to direct it goalwards, which was cleared off the line by the head of Lewis Rowe, before the goalkeeper Marigliani booted it away. Many supporters believed the ball crossed the line, but the referee refused to give a goal, which looked to be the correct call given the video footage.

Harlow kept plugging away, as Ruben Santos struck an effort which was saved fantastically by Marigliani, as the shot was going bottom-left corner. Ruben soon had another chance, which he shot on his weaker foot, fizzing wide of the goal.

The Hawks went into half-time a goal down, but had made their intentions clear towards the end of the second half – they were not going to back down.

And back down they did not. The equaliser soon came just three minutes into the second half, as Ruben Santos’ corner was headed on by Dan Heald, and smashed in by Cav Clarke from 5 yards.

Ruben Santos was given space to have another crack at goal, and he almost found the bottom left corner, but hit his effort just wide. Soon after, he had yet another shot, which was well and truly going in, but Marigliani had to make a great save to stop it.

The goal to give Harlow the lead had seemed so close yet so far, as Jack Martin’s cross was headed into the crossbar by a Cannons Wood defender, almost scoring an own-goal. James Folkes almost grabbed a goal from the following corner, heading just wide of the right post.

Attempting to add to the plethora of recent overhead kick attempts, Cav Clarke went for the ‘bicy’ from a corner, which flew way over the bar.

Inevitably, the goal did come for the Hawks; Ruben Santos skilfully drifted into the box, before firing it at goal, his shot being parried out by Marigliani. It was then picked up by Fabion Simms who picked out his defensive partner James Folkes magnificently, and ‘Folkesy’ slid it home.

Fabion Simms looked for a goal of his own, having scored a bicycle kick himself last week against FC Baresi, and his shot in this instance was a good one, being blocked out for a corner.

In a pacy counter-attack, Harlow found their third goal of the game. Jack Haley played an incredible ball down the line to Cav Clarke, who played the ball across goal perfectly into new signing Denzel Effah, who slotted it home, grabbing his first of two debut goals.

Even Assistant Manager Leon Antoine managed to get in on the act, with a trademark header from a Dan Heald cross to make it 1-4 to the Hawks. Despite only rarely receiving cameos, there’s no doubt he’s still got it.

Seconds later, it became five after Denzel Effah grabbed a second debut goal, striking the ball with panache into the right corner.

The referee eventually called time on what was a chaotic game at Parkside, in which the Hawks emerged victorious in great fashion.

We’d like to thank you for your continued support. It was great to see a fantastic travelling attendance today, and we hope to see you all at Tuesday night’s game at home to Dunmow Town.