Harlow Town FC

Harlow Town 5 Southall 5 - Isthmian League Division Two

Isthmian League

Harlow is in West Essex and borders with Hertfordshire. It is conveniently situated for London, only 40 miles from Cambridge and has good transport networks to neighbouring towns. With a population of approximately 80,000 people, it is a thriving, busy town, with a variety of shops, businesses and recreational facilities.

What a game! This ten goal thriller at The Sportcentre was not my first visit to the venue. I had visited numerous times previously to watch my local non-league club but as you might expect record keeping for a teenager was not top priority in those days! I first saw Harlow play in the Athenian League so my first visit would have been prior to 1973/74 when Harlow Town first joined the Isthmian League. Well, what can one say about this match? Southall were leading 4-1 at one stage only for Harlow to bring it back to 4-4. Southall again took the lead only for Harlow to grab a last gasp equalizer.

The Sportcentre

On display that day for the visitors was a young Alan Devonshire, later to play for West Ham United and England. In addition the match referee was Alan Turvey the current Isthmian League chairman and former football league referee. Goalscorers for Harlow were Tony Gough, John Ashton, Chris Duggan 2(1 Pen) and Joe Kasza. Southall's strikes were courtesy of Cliff Rapley, Alan Clarke(2), Roger Knowles and Alan Devonshire.

It is probably worth a moment to reflect on the recent contrasting fortunes of the two clubs. Harlow Town have just regained top flight Isthmian status after a number of years. The progress has not been easy but with the new Barrows Farm ground the club has much to look forward to. Southall by contrast are no longer in existence. The attached link to Richard Rundle's superb 'Football Club History Database' shows that during the 2005-06 Combined Counties League campaign Southall were "Expelled mid-season, record expunged". They have subsequently played in the Middlesex County League but at the time of writing (13 June 2007) are experiencing problems there as detailed on their site.

Statistical information in respect of this match provided by Phil (The Prog) Tuson

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