Another match passes in the Hornsey City saga. Can they continue the undefeated run against the third French team in a row? A trip to AJ Auxerre awaited the lads...
Morale was managing to stay fairly high, even after Poyet's (of Auxerre himself) rejection of the salary points from Hornsey (yes, I bidded for a player - don't worry, he won't feature, it was just a plot device). And within three minutes, the first chance of any note, and it went Hornsey's way.
Miranda from 22m hit the free-kick, and it bent a few inches over the bar. The 'keeper was rooted to the spot. After 6 minutes,
Huygens found himself half-a-yard after a clever turn, but his low shot was palmed out by Fabien Cool - who on today's performance, deserved an international call-up.
Some excellent soaking-up of pressure, nice passing football, and 19 minutes later, and Auxerre created their first chance of the game. A beautifully crafted move of one-touch football ended with a cross from Lacheur finding Kanga Akala with an acre of space inside the penalty area, but going for glory his scissor-kick went painfully far from goal.
A good response from Hornsey saw an absolute siege on the Auxerre goal in the last 5 minutes of the first half, with
Castello,
Ostwaut and
Miranda all having half-chances saved, and
Castello having a penalty claim turned down! Goalless at half-time.
AJ Auxerre began the second-half strongly, with efforts from distance from Deblock and Kapo that went narrowly wide and over respectively, and a tame header from Kapo right into the arms of
Ivanov. Or so you would have thought. A second later, and the ball has squirmed loose, right into Djibril Cissé's path, who tucked the ball away for a 1-0 Auxerre lead, and indeed the first time Hornsey City had trailed in a game.
With only half-an-hour to play, Hornsey City created little, except for a
Castello chance which he hit straight at Fabien Cool.
Hornsey City
0-1 AJ Auxerre
After three games in the league, and a Division 2 Cup game coming next, AJ Auxerre sit atop Division 2, with 9 points out of a possible 9, and yet to concede a goal.
Hornsey City lie second, with 6 points, 6 goals, but 3 conceded. Racing Club de Lens bring up the tail-end, and are the only team yet to win in the division, having scored only a single goal (Thomert vs.
Hornsey City), and having leaked a hefty 7 goals (4 of those vs.
Hornsey City 
).
It took Hornsey City a full 23 minutes to break Fulham down in the first-leg tie in the Division 2 cup. The break-through came after a fairly tight opening, but slowly as the game progressed Hornsey began to dominate. A good bit of work down the left from
Castello, who cut in on the corner of the box and disected the Fulham backline with a through-ball to
Huygens, whose first time shot struck van der Saar in the chest, but consequently rebounded in off the striker, for a fortunate 1-0 lead.
Huygens was denied a further three times by van der Saar, who kept Fulham in the tie in what was becoming an ever-increasing one-sided match.
Seven minutes into the second half, and Hornsey doubled their lead. A deep cross from
Castello wasn't properly cleared by Djetou, whose header tee'd up
Miranda on the penalty spot. The veteran Portuguese midfielder proceeded to bicycle-kick the ball into van der Saar's top-right corner, settling the game on the night, and giving Hornsey a two-goal advantage to take with them to Loftus Road. Though Fulham came back into it with a few efforts from distance from Brian McBride and Steed Malbranque, they failed to make
Ivanov pick the ball out of the back of the net. First clean sheet!
Hornsey City
2-0 Fulham
A nice win in the cup, and that concludes today's update. More to come tomorrow!
