SSML Division One Harpenden Town 3 Crawley Green 2 HARPENDEN Town parted company with manager Christian Garzarolli and then went and ended their long winless run with a 3-2 defeat of Crawley Green on Saturday. Club chairman, Kelvin Gregory, told the Herts

SSML Division One

Harpenden Town 3 Crawley Green 2

HARPENDEN Town parted company with manager Christian Garzarolli and then went and ended their long winless run with a 3-2 defeat of Crawley Green on Saturday.

Club chairman, Kelvin Gregory, told the Herts Advertiser that Garzarolli had left despite being offered another position at the club.

"He went before the game on Saturday," said Mr Gregory.

"There was a lot of pressure at work and although we offered him another position at the club he has decided not to take it," continued the chairman.

When asked about Garzarolli's successor Mr Gregory said: "We're going to take time to reflect but we want someone who is local to Harpenden."

The chairman has taken over the managerial reins in the mean time and got off to a flying start on Saturday.

Town went into the game on the back of four straight league defeats and a disappointing Senior Challenge Trophy exit at the hands of Codicote and their afternoon didn't get off to the greatest of starts with the visitors opening the scoring after just 12 minutes.

Jon Barnett's free kick found Rian MacDonald at the far post who fired home.

The score stayed like that until the 67th minute when Town were awarded a penalty. Up stepped Chris Gregory who emphatically converted the spot kick.

Ten minutes later Town took the lead for the first time when a goalkeeping error from Scott Bates saw the Crawley 'keeper drop a shot at the feet of James Hardy who stabbed the ball home from close range.

The visitors hit back though, drawing level in the 84th minute after MacDonald released John Cooper and he slotted home from 10 yards.

The visitors felt they should have had a penalty when Aaron Wilson went down in the box but the referee waved away their protests.

Town made the most of this reprieve and when Bates repeated his earlier error, Hardy was again on hand to secure Harpenden's first league win since September 26.

n Town were unable to repeat their success on Tuesday losing 3-0 to Cockfosters.