Harefield United 1-2 Dunstable Town 4th February 2020 Patrick MacKay Gareth Jackson's men made it ten points from a possible twelve on Tuesday evening, with a late Joe Hankins header completing a turnaround against Harefield United. There were five changes for the Blues after Saturday's well-earned point against Biggleswade United, with Jackson giving a debut to left-back Jeremiah Debayo, and starting places for other recent recruits Helder Lopes and Jake Kissiedu. Lopes had the first sight of goal for the Blues when a Joe Hankins cross was headed into his path, but while he connected with the ball well, he couldn't direct his shot on target. Good work on the wing saw Daniel Trif cut inside to create time and space for a shot, but his left-footed effort was pulled wide of the mark. Harefield took the lead in the eighteenth minute when Harry McCorkell nodded home from close range at the back post, and Harefield started to take a grip on the game. Ronan Larrington had a decent chance to double the lead for the hosts when a corner was headed onto him at the back post, but he saw his effort well wide of the goal. With ten minutes to play before half-time, Hankins was the provider as he whipped in a pacy free-kick from the left which looked to be heading in but for a header off the line, but Khy Smith-Reid was well placed to put the ball into the back of the net to equalise for Town. Dunstable came back out for the second half with renewed impetus, and early chances came from a Jake Kissiedu header, and then when Trif fizzed the ball across the face of goal, the ball could have ended up anywhere, but in fact was only deflected wide for a corner. In truth, the budding centre-back pairing of Sam McClelland and Eric Ameyaw wasn't troubled often in the second half, but when Lenny Farhall showed impressive speed to get on the end of a through ball, Connor Coulson was out quickly to shut him down. The final twenty minutes saw the introduction of Jack Harvey-Bailey, Craig Packham and Luke Little in the search for a winner, and Harvey-Bailey was given an unexpected opportunity when a cross somehow bounced over the defender into the path of the attacker, whose header was pushed round the post by goalkeeper Jacob Ballheimer. It wasn't until the eighty-fourth minute that the Dunstable persistence paid off, seeing Luke Little claim an assist as he headed a Debayo cross into the path of Hankins, who got his third goal in three games to give the visitors all three points. Dunstable's rich vein of form sees them visit Edgware Town on Saturday afternoon, a 3PM kick-off.
