The weather was not the most exciting thing spoken about on the 1st of April (despite it not being able to make its mind up as usual), as Hackney Wick almost took a point from Harlow Town, but the Hawks came out on top in the end.

It was a slow start to the game from both sides on what certainly wasn’t the greatest surface. Around 16 minutes into the game, Hackney Wick were awarded a corner and James Pellin was forced to make a good save to his right as the header from the home side travelled goalwards.

Towards the end of the first half, Tom Jelliman picked out James Folkes from a free-kick, but the central defender and Harlow captain was unable to steer his header towards the goal, and instead the effort was wildly over the bar.

Some controversial challenges occurred in the first-half in which the referee had deemed not to be fouls, one of which was Biossy’s two-footed tackle on Dan Heald which seemed late to say the least.

The half got slightly spicier towards the end and Ishaq Ameen played a terrific ball over the top, from what was practically an overhead kick. Jack Zielinski sprinted towards it and with the Hackney Wick goalkeeper Klimkiewicz desperately rushing off his line, the Harlow striker got just enough on it to poke it past him – an opening goal for the away side.

The Hawks created a few more chances, one of which being a sitter from James Folkes as he was picked out from a corner and missed the target again, before Lopate found the net for Hackney Wick, chipping it over James Pellin and levelling proceedings.

Hackney Wick had the final shot of the half, which was one from distance from Newby, and it didn’t trouble James Pellin.

Going into the break, a level scoreline was probably a fair reflection of the opening 45’s action in which there was not a plethora of chances, setting up an exciting second half.

Hackney Wick opened the second half in a similar fashion to the way in which the first had ended, with a shot from distance that posed little danger. 2 minutes later, Jack Zielinski very nearly caused trouble to the Hackney defence, after an impressive bit of skill created a chance to shoot, but his shot was scuffed.

Newby had a great opportunity to score, and had a crack at goal which was smothered by James Pellin as it was hit straight towards him.

Emmanuel Okoroji was soon sent off with 30 minutes still to play, after lunging in with a challenge on Jack Zielinski, which saw him booked for a second time. The dismissal was the third red card against Harlow in three consecutive matches.

From the resulting free kick, Harlow put the ball into the net as Jelliman found Zielinski who slid it home, however the goal was disallowed, as the referee had explained that his whistle was to indicate the Hackney Wick substitution, rather than allowing the free kick to be taken, much to the frustration of the away side.

This seemed to not matter though, as the substitution was made and Harlow simply scored from the next free kick – this time completely legally, and what a goal it was. Tom Jelliman picked out James Folkes with a perfect cross and the centre-back produced a curling header into the back of the net, which was impossible for the Hackney keeper to save. Once again, Harlow Town had the advantage.

The closest Harlow came to scoring after this was a strike from Korede Da Silva, which looked as though the keeper had got a hand to it, however the referee pointed for a goal kick.

James Pellin performed excellently towards the end of the game, producing a good save and then a top save from a free-kick. Hackney Wick came so close to equalising after hitting the bar from the following corner, however they simply couldn’t find the net with a player down and Harlow held on strongly, going home with all three points.