Harrow Borough clinch play-off place

May 2 2011 By Jon Batham

Harrow Borough 1-1 Cray Wanderers

THE WIDTH of a crossbar sent nine-man Harrow Borough into the play-offs in a dramatic game against Cray at Earlsmead on Saturday.

Ninety four minutes had elapsed of the last game of the season and with final whistles gone everywhere else, David Howell’s side conceded one last free-kick.

Chris Saunders got the ball over the wall, but as Borough’s players and fans watched with hearts in mouths the shot clipped the top of bar.

Still at the final whistle there were hands on heads thinking one point wasn’t enough, but then came confirmation it was off to Tonbridge on Tuesday.

It was nothing more than David Howell’s men deserved after a 90 minutes where they got the rough end of almost every decision from referee Chris O’Donnell.

Borough began nervously and Chris Saunders twice went close for the visitors as well as setting up Steve Lozano for a chance he should have buried only to shoot wide.

However, with David Ijaha dominant in midfield Borough then enjoyed a dominant spell.

Kurt Morlese played a ball in from the left which Danny McGonigle cushioned into the path of Ryan Watts who fired just wide.

An even better chance came on 32 minutes as Morlese harried the Wanderers’ keeper into a clearance and when the resulting throw dropped to Baptiste some eight yards out he shot too near Dave King who parried to safety.

Then on the stroke of half-time Cray had a goal disallowed for offside, but Wayne Walters, already booked, was dismissed for a foul in the build-up.

Baptiste was sacrificed at half-time to bring Danny Leech into the back four, but with all the three teams above them drawing and Kingstonian leading 3-1 at Margate things looked grim.

However, within 50 seconds of the restart, Leech’s first touch saw him flick on Watts’ free-kick for Tobi Jinadu arriving late to stab into the roof of the net.

Jupp stood up well to save from John Guest before disaster struck on the hour.

Clarke was blatantly pushed in the back right in front of both referee and linesman who gave nothing and in the melee which followed the Borough man was adjudged to have gone looking for retribution and dismissed.

Borough threw on Jerome Walker for Morlese and when the young winger went racing clear and clashed with Cray skipper Mark Willy home fans called for a red as last man - referee O’Donnell gave nothing.

By this time Margate were back to 3-3 but Bury, Lowestoft and Tonbridge were all in front.

Just as it looked as if Borough had weathered the storm Willy, arguably lucky to be on the pitch hit a screamer from the edge of the box beyond Jupp’s left hand with four minutes left.

Canvey Island were now ahead meaning one slip and the dream was over, but the woodwork came to the rescue.