Highlights: Cheshunt 1 Horsham 0

By Ian Townsend

The Ambers ensure that their safety is- almost- guaranteed

Cheshunt welcomed Horsham to North London on Tuesday night with both sides rather desperate for victory. The hosting Ambers had only goal difference keeping them out of the bottom four, but they also had a game in hand over fourth bottom Margate; whilst the visiting Hornets needed just one point to guarantee a play off spot. We expected the proceedings to be rather tense, and indeed they were, with just a single goal- but it was a goal that delivered Amber delight!

These two sides have never served up a goalfest- their previous six meetings had not seen a margin of victory higher than two-nil- so it was perhaps fitting that the decisive goal was served up by a defender. Chevron McLean, a promotion winner with the Ambers two years ago, returned to the club in January and last night scored for the first time since his latest debut. It may be claimed that his effort was actually a cross, but if he’d been saving it up he couldn’t have picked a better time- and the home fans wouldn’t have cared had it been a ricochet off the goalkeepers backside, as it looks to have retained their Premier Division status. The Hornets went down to ten men deep in added time at the end of the match, Lee Harding dismissed.

Margate aren't confirmed as mathematically relegated, but they are three points behind the Ambers with one match left- which means that they need to win, see Cheshunt lose at Hashtag United, and overturn a goal difference that sees them fourteen goals worse off. That would look rather unlikely even if Gate weren’t scheduled to travel to sixth place Billericay Town, who suddenly have hope of that sixth place turning to fifth, or even fourth.

Horsham’s defeat leaves them- and fourth place Wingate and Finchley- tied on seventy three points. Three points further back, and with a significantly better goal difference, are Billericay Town- which means that Billericay need to defeat Margate and hope that either the Camping World Community Stadium of the Maurice Rebak Stadium witnesses an away win, with Concord Rangers and Carshalton Athletic cast in the role of villains. All the Hornets and the North London Blues have to do to qualify is avoid defeat- but that may not be easy.

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Where next?

Enfield find a new home Enfield move to Hertford
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