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Josh puts Pinner in 7th heaven

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"Believe in yourselves and you can do it," said Amit Vadera, the Pinner Coach five weeks ago.

At the time, the Blues were in fifth place where assuming they won their games in hand, they had to beat Northwood Blue who were holding top spot. Lose and the title would surely go to Northwood.

And so it was that with just 10 players available, Pinner battled for everything but going 1-0 down early on, they left themselves with a mountain to climb. However, the boys rose to the challenge and without doubt, put up the best performance of the season and claimed an unlikely 3-2 away victory.

Four games to go and unbeaten since November, the Blues now had to win all of their remaining games and overhaul Northwood's superior goal difference. A hard fought 3-2 win against the much improved Bedmond Ajax meant that there was all to play for in the double-header that followed against lowly St Albans who were swept aside leaving Pinner with the better goal tally needed. Next up, the usually feisty Borehamwood Diamonds Away, on the final day of the season.

A win against the mid-table side would secure the result. The Blues were high in performance and maintained a superb work rate. They found themselves three goals to the good within ten minutes, but the Woods put up a strong fight by creating opportunities and responding with a first half goal ensuring Pinner worked hard for their ambitions.

A hat-trick from man-of-the-match Joshua Burchhardt, a brace from Jordan Aspis, including a clever chip by spotting the Woods keeper of his line, and one apiece from Ben Graham and Josh Cohen, the latter being a penalty for a blatant hand ball all contributed. With little to play for but pride the Woods found Pinner's superiority in all areas too much to handle despite netting a further consolation late on.

This was a job well done. Promotion and the shared title secured. The latter being normal within the Watford Friendly League, with the Blues and Northwood finishing level on points despite the psychological advantage being awarded to Pinner with the positive goal difference.

Les Conway, Club Chairman and Director of Operations at Elite Soccer Academy who supplies qualified coaches to run all of the teams on matchdays and as the club's service provider, said: "This is a fantastic result and one for which we are all ecstatic.

"This is the first season where we've been utilising the coaches from the academy and is reaping the rewards as we expected."

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