Saturday 11th September 2021
BUILDBASE F.A VASE-1ST ROUND QUALIFYING
COGENHOE UNITED v HAREFIELD UNITED
Compton Park
Brafield Road
Cogenhoe
Northants
NN7 1ND
KO 3-pm
The draws for the F.A Cup and the F.A Vase are always excitedly anticipated as the season approaches and with both clubs out of the Cup, today’s game is the only realistic chance of reaching Wembley Stadium next May. Harefield, like ourselves, have lost all of their last four games and having scored just once in those they bring the accumulated goals for tally up to, well, one. Doesn’t look like a high scoring game them tomorrow so what odds on it ending 5-4, hopefully in our favour.
The Hares play in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division (Step 5) and have been in this division since they gained promotion at the end of the last full pre-covid season. When I made my first visit to their ground in Brakespeare Road they were established members of the Isthmian League, but hard times were ahead for the club and they were to spend five seasons playing at step 7 in the SSML Division Two. 2018-19 was a great season for the club as current manager Jason Shaw led them unbeaten through the whole league campaign, amassing an incredible 110 points and winning the title by 16.
One player who is of particular interest to me is striker Richard Pacqutte, a Dominica international who came through the ranks at Queens Park Rangers. Kilburn born, he is one of many players to start at local club QPR and go on to make the first team, playing 31 times scoring 6 times before moving on to a career that has seen him play for over 30 clubs. Now 38 he started in the first 3 games this season scoring 3 times, but hasn’t featured since. He has scored over 170 goals in his career, but perhaps the one that stands out the most in his memory will be putting Havant & Waterlooville in front at Anfield in the F.A Cup, even if Liverpool did come back to win 5-2. He also scored in both legs of a play-off final for QPR which hopefully are amongst the highlights of his long career to date.
As far as I can see this is the first ever competitive game between our two clubs so no historic stats to add, instead below is a breakdown of Harefield United’s season so far which has seen them win twice (both in the F.A Cup), draw twice and lose the other four, as previously stated their last four games.
| HAREFIELD UNITED 2021/22 | ||||
| FA CUP-EP | CHIPPING SODBURY TOWN | A | 2v1 | Richard Pacquette (2) |
| SSML PREM | NEW SALAMIS | H | 1v1 | Richard Pacquette |
| SSML PREM | M.K IRISH | A | 2v2 | Courtney Austin, Austin Schofield |
| FA CUP-PREL | BINFIELD | H | 2v1 | Courtney Austin, Hekmat Alizai |
| SSML PREM | ARDLEY UNITED | H | 0v3 | |
| SSML PREM | LEVERSTOCK GREEN | H | 1v3 | Junayd Shawwal |
| FA CUP-1Q | HASTINGS UNITED | H | 0v4 | |
| SSML PREM | HOLMER GREEN | A | 0v2 | |
Good luck to Bully, Grovesy and the boys tomorrow. We need to turn the tide after recent performances and all clubs love a run in the Vase.
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE-RESERVE DIVISION
WELLINGBOROUGH TOWN Reserves v COGENHOE UNITED Reserves
Dog & Duck
London Rd
Wellingborough
KO 3pm
Steve Ganley takes his young squad down the road to face in-form Wellingborough tomorrow afternoon. The Doughboys sit fifth in the table with four wins and just one defeat so far, that loss coming in their last outing at Newport Pagnell on Tuesday night. Prior to that they have beaten Raunds away (1-0), Daventry home (5-0), Irchester home (2-0) and O.N Chenecks home (2-1).
Daniel Uche who joined the Doughboys in the summer from the Cooks has netted three times in four games so far and we know the powerful front runner can be a handful on his day, but they also seem to have a decent mixture of quality young players with some experienced heads to see them through, so it is likely to be a tough one again for our youngsters tomorrow.
