MGBSFL PREMIER DIVISION
HENDON UNITED SPORTS CLUB A 5 OAKWOOD A 1
David Garbacz toasted his Hendon heroes as last season's treble winners showed true championship quality to come from behind and crush Oakwood 5-1.
Oakwood went into the game in high spirits, with Brad Wine and Dave Woolman in top form, and they forged ahead when former NLR hard man Carl Peters fired past Russ Corin in the Hendon goal.
Hendon "took a good 30 minutes to get going and were quite fortunate to be only 1-0 down at the time," according to Garbacz.
However, after a fine equaliser by Dave Seitler, "there was only ever one team in it".
The Reds scored two more before half-time as a combination of their momentum and "an Oakwood self-destruct button" helped Hendon take total control by the break.
They did not let up in the second half and produced one of their "best displays of the season" in scoring two more and running away with an emphatic victory.
Garbacz told JC Sport: "There were at least five excellent performances today, most notably from youngster Dave Seitler, who literally tore them apart all morning with his pace, and skill and Avishai Kestenbaum who played as emergency left back and was faultless throughout.
"Tali Nevies continued his great form at the back and Simon Peterman was immense in midfield in the second half.
"This victory was achieved without at least four regulars and the competition for places once they return will be enormous.
"Oakwood played well for the first part of the match, but in truth they could not cope with us once we equalised towards the end of the first half.
"This was a big win for us and should send out the message once again that it will need a very good team to stop us retaining our title which I assure you we still have a firm grip on."
Oakwood's Ric Blank believes that after some decisions went against his team, they were their own worst enemies.
Blank told JC Sport: "David Garbacz said that we hit the self-destruct button - and he's totally right. For 35 minutes there was only one team that looked like scoring and it wasn't Hendon. We were 1-0 up, looked solid and were causing countless problems on the break. It's as well as we've played all season.
"We had two goals contentiously disallowed (both given offside by the Hendon linesman) and the second goal seemed only a imminent. Then we switched off from a long free kick and conceded the softest equaliser. We could have put our flag up for offside as it was marginal but we won't do that - even if it costs us.
"We then proceeded to have the worst 10 minutes I can remember as we fell apart, pressing too high, taking too many touches, giving the ball away in dangerous areas and Hendon punished us. It was 3-1 at the break and honestly could have been more.
"The second half was a non-affair as we gifted Hendon two more goals to end one of the worst experiences in my time as Oakwood manager.
"Congrats to Hendon - they are still the best game-managers around. They know when to play, when to go long, when to slow it down, etc, etc. It's a fantastic quality to have. They are a really good side, that play with pace and aggression. I don't mind losing to them. I cannot abide the way it happened. It won't happen again."
Responding to Blank's comments, Garbacz added: "For the record the linesman did not raise his flag for the first disallowed goal – that was disallowed by the ref. For the second he did but that was because the forward was a yard off and that’s football. In terms of contentious decisions, their penalty was clearly ball to hand rather than hand to ball and we were then denied one 10 minutes later in a totally identical situation. Overall though I thought the ref had a good game."
