Five-star Rovers off to a winning start

London Rovers began life in the MGBSFL with an opening day victory over Hendon United B.

MGBSFL Division Three:
London Rovers 5 Hendon United B 2
Sunday, 7 September, 2014

On a dreary Sunday morning, Rovers headed to our temporary home for the week, Northwick Park Playing Fields, which is convenient from an injury perspective, but thankfully there were no “go break a leg” moments in the game.

Going into a game expecting a battle from Hendon, Rovers opened the scoring within three minutes as Josh Bharier bundled the ball into the back of the net after falling twice, but he just kept going and got the ball in.

Hendon then scored from a controversially awarded free-kick, but a sweetly hit shot from Saul Cohen went right into the top corner – out of reach of the ex Hendon B goalkeeper Yaacov Goldin.

It took 10 minutes of battling, great defending and some great movement for Rovers to regain the leadm and it came in rather bizarre circumstances as the stand-in goalkeeper flapped at a deftly hit shot from the half-way line by Yehoshua Silverman.- and it wasn’t a bad way to go out as Yehoshua now leaves north London for the land of milk and honey at the end of this week.

It didn’t take long for the lead to be extended when Bharier once more bulldozed his way through the Hendon B defence and bundled the ball into the back of the net – number two for the newly named “Josh the Bulldozer”. Hendon pulled one back just before half-time, when Cohen headed home from a corner as the ball sneaked under the bar into the goal.

Trailing by just the one goal, Hendon came out strongly after the break, but they were met by stern Rovers defending as they managed to soak up the pressure. They made it 4-2 27 minutes later when “Josh the Bulldozer Bharier” completed a dream hat-tick on his debut.

A few substitutions gave the game a fresh face, Rovers attacked well and claimed their final goal when great passing from the back – as many as 10 – resulted in new signing from Hendon A, Yisroel Lewis, one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he sweetly finished the move off.

Rovers chairman Vivian Emanuel said: “A great performance all round, great thanks to the manager Jeremy Brown for choosing a great side. This could be a great year from London Rovers but this is only game 1! Shacharit Donetsk next!