Five-star finale sends confident Hatfield United into the summer break

Hatfield United rounded off their Herts Senior County League Division One season with a thumping victory over a side above them.

The 5-0 win over Bovingdon Res was typical of their end of season form and meant that of the11 league games played in 2022, they had lost just once and picked up eight wins, leaving them in sixth.

Vinnie Davino had already sent a shot wide of the post when Dale Stewart put them into an early lead with a rocket from 30 yards.

And the rest of the half was one-way traffic with another three scored and countless missed.

Stewart was denied by the Bovingdon keeper, as was Curtis Warner when put clean through, but with Stewart, Matt Noot and Rod Agyeman-Duhar running the Bovingdon defence ragged, it was only a matter of time before United increased their lead.

And it came after a mazy run from Agyeman-Duhar, who ended it by curling his left foot shot into the top corner to give the keeper no chance.

Bovingdon had plenty of possession but they came up against a defensive unit in which Greg Mackintosh and Chris Gray were superb, meaning Ryan Moss in the United goal was rarely troubled.

And it was Gray who missed the chance to put United further ahead when he failed to put his unmarked header at the far post into the net.

He made up for that miss though on 30 minutes when his superb through ball sent Warner clear, and he unselfishly squared it for Agyeman-Duhar to side-step the keeper before rolling it into an empty net.

Two minutes later Charlie Woodward was unlucky not to increase their lead when his cross shot took a slight deflection to send it just over the bar but it was only a temporary reprieve for Bovingdon.

And with 10 minutes to go in the half, Noot picked the ball up out on the left before dribbling past three players and slotting it into the far corner for 4-0 at half time.

It was perhaps no surprise that United couldn't maintain their performance levels in the second period but they were still able to add one more with a minute to go in normal time.

Francis supplied the pass that sent Sylvester Makubuya through and after shrugging off his marker, he slotted calmly past the keeper for number five.