THE WHITE Tigers huffed and puffed on a blustery afternoon in Wealdstone but ultimately came home with nothing to show for our efforts in a 2-1 defeat.
The opening exchanges were pretty evenly-matched and both sides had goals ruled out for offside. With four minutes on the clock, Eisa thought he had put the home side in front only for the offside flag to rule his strike out.
Then Noah Keats experienced the same fate for City in the 18th minute before Cody Cooke was denied by a block from the home ‘keeper.
The breakthrough finally came for the home side when they took the lead just before the half-hour mark as Eisa found the net as he showed determination to beat Tom McHale.
The lead was doubled moments later by the same player as we failed to clear our lines and an unfortunate deflection fell into Eisa’s path.
It was a sucker-punch and made our task after the break a tricky one despite having the wind behind us. That said, we should have gone in at the interval just one goal behind as Ben Gerring missed a great chance after finding himself in space only to head wide and then Riley-Lowe was denied.
Both teams had half-chances early in the second period with McHale saving well from Green and then Keats lashing an effort wide of the mark at the other end.
Jon North in the home goal did well to thwart River Allen from close range as we started to get on top as the clock ticked down and forced a series of corners that caused problems for the home side.
We were finally able to breach the home defence with just under ten minutes left on the clock as Tyler Harvey found the net to make it 2-1 after he latched onto a low ball in from the right by Gerring.
The closing stages saw us end the game strongly as we searched for an equaliser. Lamont went close whilst Niall Thompson’s cross evaded everyone.
The final chance saw Gerring put another header narrowly wide as we came home with no points to show for our efforts.

WHITE TIGERS: McHale, Palfrey (Harvey 62), Riley-Lowe, Richards, Gerring, Hartridge, Lamont, Keats (Thompson 62), Neal, Cooke, Allen (Yetton 85). Subs not used: Palmer, Harding.

BOOKING(S): Riley-Lowe.

GOAL(S): Harvey.

ATTENDANCE: 817.