Marlow's momentum builds as Nawaf leads charge in thrilling win over Welwyn

Naheer Nawaf scored twice on Saturday. Photo: Marlow FC

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Marlow were victorious again on Saturday and have shown in the past few weeks they’re a much more competitive football team at this level than their early season form and results suggested.

The Blues found themselves struggling at the wrong end of the Southern League Central Division table a few weeks ago, and at one stage lost four straight matches in all competitions while conceding four goals in all those games.

That was enough for manager Mark Bartley to start ringing the changes, accepting that a few of the players he’d brought in over the summer didn’t have the attitude or quality needed to compete at this level. He replaced those players with some more experienced heads and - with players also returning from injury - results have seen a big uptick in recent weeks.

They deservedly defeated play-off hopefuls Biggleswade Town 2-1 on their own patch, went away to Enfield and salvaged an extremely late 2-2 draw thanks to a 96th minute equaliser from Sebastian D'aversa. They lost heavily away to leaders Leighton Town - with Shamar Moore getting their only goal. But the Blues are not the only team to have come unstuck against the unbeaten leaders this season. And they responded to it well in Saturday’s entertaining 3-2 win over Welwyn Garden City - a result which lifts the Blues to 16th in the table.

An incident in the crowd saw the game held up for more than 20 minutes, with the Blues leading 2-1 going into half-time.

Naheer Nawaf had fired the Blues ahead in the 12th minute after exchanging passes with Moore. Nawaf managed to rob the ball from the keeper and then pass it into the unguarded net. Welwyn hit back within five minutes through Steve Cawley but a second Marlow goal followed in the 20th minute with Moore heavily involved again. The striker held off his marker before slipping a pass through to Flavio Gyawu-Kyem who slotted his shot into the far corner.

During the break in play, Welwyn’s Tom Bruno was also sent off by the referee, so the Blues returned for a slightly extended second half with a man advantage.

The Blues gave themselves a two-goal buffer in the 48th minute when Carr played a ball through for Nawaf to score his second of the game and the home side held on for all three points, despite Welwyn’s Eddie Corbit grabbing a goal back in the 71st minute.

Chris Ovenden and Nawaf, for his hat-trick, had chances to seal the game, but the hosts had done enough to claim a third positive result in their last four league matches.

They now have a free week to prepare for Saturday’s trip to the London Lions - the team just beneath them in the table.

Reflecting on the result and performance afterwards, manager Mark Bartley said: “I thought we were good value for the three points to be honest.

“I thought we were ok in the Leighton game for a long spell, and I said to them that we need to maintain the level that we’ve been at for the past few games.

“Thankfully, we did. I thought we started well. We knew they were a decent side, but I felt that we were well worth the three points.

“I’m really pleased for the boys because again it just shows our progress. This is just a continuation of what we’ve shown for the past few games. We’re getting some bodies back and a few others are starting to find their feet at this level.

“It’s another one of those games where I’m saying we should have had five or six if I’m honest. We’ve missed chances and their keeper has made some good saves. but the good thing is we’re creating chances.

“When you think back to where we were four or five weeks ago, we’re more solid defensively and going forward we’re creating more opportunities. It looks like we’re close to being a very good side to be honest.”