London Tigers 1: Berkhamsted 3
After a fairly cagey start it was the Tigers that struck first.
A good sudden movement was started down the right by Roderjan Rodrigues as he drove through the Berkhamsted defence and fed Guy Tahin who was able to turn and feed the ball across to the far post to find Marcus Lansiquot waiting to fire home a fierce first time volley that left Carl Tasker standing watching.
For most of the first half there was a lot end to end football played and during this period the referee showed the red card to Tahin for something that had everyone watching baffled. But on the stroke of half time in the 45th minute Berkhamsted struck to pull themselves level.
It was James Towell who crossed from the right and Connor Calcut scrambled the ball home at the near post. When the game restarted after half time Berkhamsted went directly on the attack and it paid dividends for them as in the 47th minute they found the back of the net through Ed Canham. Midway through the second half in the 67th minute the referee gave Ed Canham a second yellow card for what he deemed a bad tackle and had no option but to send him off and level up the numbers on the pitch.
After this the Tigers were pressing and some good work down the right wing by Lansiquot put Roderjan Rodrigues in a shooting position but some excellent keeping by Tasker denied the chance being taken.
But then it was the turn of Berkhamsted to attack and when Calcut broke though the defence he found Jamie Adim in top form denying him a goal by diving high to his left and touching the shot round the post in the 87th minute.
But right on 90 minutes Adim could do nothing about a late strike from substitute Adiel Mannion to extend their lead to 3-1.
Teams:
London Tigers: J Adim T Whitman M Nduakulu E Njodzeka G Guramishvili I Mohammed O El-Bakkali R Rodrigues LG Tahin J Laraba M Lansiquot sub: T Cariba P Cortelo C Osbourne J Davite
Berkhamsted: C Tasker D Greig J Copson L Rodrigoe E Canham S Hawes F Nowle J Gavin C Calcut J TowellJ Chamberlain sub: A Mannion J Shaw A Morrissey A Usmani