Southern Premier

Hemel Hempstead 1 Bedford Town 0

Bedford Town are still looking for their first win of the season after they went down 1-0 to Hemel Hempstead at Vauxhall Road.

A lack of cutting edge proved costly for Lee Howarth's side who consistently failed to make anything of some good possession and territory.

The visitors had the better of a lively opening on a greasy surface without really testing Ian Brown in the home goal.

The Eagles' gameplan revolved around a quick break, in contrast to that of the Tudors who were content to attack Rob Miller and Eddie Lawley on the flanks.

Aside from the odd hopeful hack forward, both sides tried to keep the ball down and it nearly paid dividends when Ashley Blake skewed a good opportunity wide of the right hand post from close range.

Mike Armitt fumbled a speculative shot a couple of minutes later and Garry Sippetts headed over when unmarked as began to threaten.

A goalmouth scramble was successfully averted at the third attempt before a sharp turn by Andrew Stevens was finished with a weak attempt.

Steve Gentle latched on to a Phillips flick-on and fired over but despite the industry on show, a goal did not look like arriving.

The longer the half went on, the scrappier it became as frustration led to a breakdown in fluency, emphasised by the succession of misplaced passes.

The Eagles' best move of the match just before the interval, a slick interchange on the left wing, culminated in Brown diving low to his left to stop Lawley's dangerous centre.

A half time cuppa worked its magic as the Eagles were quickly out of the blocks, Blake seeing a shot well blocked by the covering defence.

Twelve minutes into the second half the deadlock was broken by the hosts when Sippetts headed in at the far post from a cross that was fired across the Bedford goal when the original danger was not cleared.

As was the case for large parts of last season, the decisive ball was proving to be the Eagles' achilles heel with their good work continually going to waste in the final third.

A point blank header from Nathan Bowden-Haase, which should have doubled Hemel's lead, went into the stands as the hosts, as happened in the same fixture earlier in the year, assumed the initiative as the game entered the final 20 minutes.

Phillips came close to levelling the score when he edged in front of his marker only to steer his effort over the target before the last few minutes saw the visitors threaten through the middle with a number of dangerous crosses being easily repelled, epitomising what was a frustrating night for the Eagles.

EAGLES: Armitt, Miller, Lawley, Kierans, Darby, Wall (Aladetoun 74), Daniel, Cavill, Phillips, Gentle, Blake (Oujdi 68).
Subs: Boland, Noslin, Priestnall, Kavanagh.