RYMAN PREMIER LEAGUE

Peacehaven & Telscombe 4 

Harrow Borough 1

Six calamitous minutes plunged Harrow Borough ever closer to the early season relegation scrap at Peacehaven & Telscombe on Saturday.

Level at 1-1 and well in contention just beyond the hour Dave Anderson’s men fell behind when Joe Gatting’s shot for the hosts hit the inside of a post and Borough keeper Charlie Horlock appeared to knock it over the line in his desperate attempts to clear.

A third goal soon followed for the hosts when Jake Gilbert was harshly penalised and the resulting free-kick was swept out left to Josh Jones whose delicious cross was firmly headed home by Sami El Abd.

Borough could have reduced the arrears on 67 minutes when Lewis Driver’s shot was blocked, but the pain was not over for the men of Earlsmead as a minute later they conceded another set-piece and Jones curled in a sumptuous effort from 25yards out.

The disastrous few minutes was out of character with the rest of the performance, meaning the 4-1 defeat was harsh on Borough, but the hard facts are this was their 10th defeat in 15 league games and they are just one place and two points above the drop zone where some of those lurking have games in hand.

The first hour had seen the visitors compete well despite key absences in defence which saw Gilbert and Michael Barima recalled for the injured Anthony Massiat and the unavailable Franny Otira.

Both sides missed early chances with Ryan Hope twice going close for Borough, but it was the youngster’s mistake in under-hitting a 24th minute back-pass which let in Gatting for the first goal of the game.

Borough responded well with two shots from the in-form Driver and a deflected effort from Danny May. The latter’s effort produced a corner which led to the 31st minute leveller, the ball in finding Driver, whose shot was cleared off the line, but only as far as Gilbert who fired home from eight yards out.

Anderson’s side opened the second half brightly too with five successive corners. During the siege Anthony Di Bernado tipped over a long-range fizzer from Ben Long and kept out a Howard Hall header, while Driver had another header cleared off the line.

Failure to turn the pressure into goals came back to haunt them when the six minutes from hell unfolded and though they finished strongly with injury time efforts from Hope and Marc Charles-Smith the damage was done.

Borough begin a week of knockout football tomorrow night when they visit Enfield Town in the Robert Dyas Cup.