CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP ROUND ONE
BORUSSIA BARNET 0 HMH 4
For HMH, this was definitely a game of two halves. Second division Borussia made life difficult for the opening 30 minutes as they defended well, as the Peter Morrison Trophy holders struggled on the small pitch.
Gradually HMH realised that moving the ball quickly on the small pitch would eventually open Borussia up. The visitors started creating chances; Dan Hardoon made the keeper work and Natey Kashket shot into the side-netting. But it took a 'worldie' from Ellis from the edge of the box to open the scoring just before half-time.
It was one-way traffic in the second half as HMH found their rhythm and started to carve Borussia open. First Josh Goldstein put a free-kick from 25 yards in the far corner.
Oscar Wagner lifted his chip over the keeper but also crossbar when clean through, but Wagner, last season's top-scorer, made up for it a few minutes later to make it 3-0.
George Goldberg completed the scoring with HMH's fourth. In truth it should have been more and one fantastic two-touch move involving half a dozen players ended with Goldberg crossing and Hardoon being inches away from "sealing goal of the season so far".
Jubilant HMH boss Avi Goldberg told JC Sport: “A potential banana skin was avoided as we romped home in the end.
"Most importantly was another clean sheet. Lots of credit due to defence and, in particular, Max Foster who had an awesome man-of-the-match debut marshalling the defence, with goalkeeper Alex Davies in control and making one very important save at 2-0."
Goldberg went on to say: "Borussia put up a spirited fight, particularly in first 30 minutes but once we found our rhythm there was only going to be one winner.
"On today’s first-half form, I expect Borussia to be challenging for honours in Divison Two and we wish them best of luck.”
A Borussia spokesman told JC Sport: "From our perspective , we felt really unlucky. At 0-0, we had a goal disallowed because of a very questionable overhead wire decision.
"We were the better team first half but as we had to chase the game due to an Adam Ellis wonder strike, the holes started to appear.
"Full credit to HMH as they’re a brilliant side but we gave them a proper battle today and I think they’ll agree 4-0 probably wasn’t a fair reflection of our performance."
BORUSSIA: Joe Botchin, Joseph Eskenazy, Mitchell Gerber, Scott Greenfield, Oliver Lewin, Adam Lipman, Sam Lipton, Henry Mattey, Oron Sheldon, Oliver Smith, Michael Kenley. Subs: Adam Bowman, Joe Freedman, Oliver Hart, Danny Shina
HMH: Alex Davies, Dom Feldman, Max Foster, George Goldberg, Josh Goldstein, Daniel Hardoon, Jake Norton, Thomas Prais, Alex Moss, Nathan Kashket, Adam Ellis. Subs: Clark Norton, Oscar Wagner
SCORERS: Ellis, Goldberg, Goldstein, Wagner
