RETURN OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL
THEY say home is where the heart is and the returning Ralston Gabriel is delighted to be spearheading Haringey Borough’s assault on a second straight promotion.
The 27-year-old striker made a surprise move back to Coles Park last week after winning plenty of plaudits during a prolific spell in the National League South with St Albans City.
Gabriel netted over 30 goals to help Haringey reach Step 3 for the first time last season before leaving for the Saints over the summer.
An early season run of form saw the striker propel himself towards the top of the goal scoring charts, however Gabriel’s momentum was suddenly curtailed when he fell down the pecking order at the Hertfordshire club after a spell on the sidelines with injury.
Haringey’s returning star told The NLP: “It’s great to be back at Haringey and there is such a good atmosphere around the place at the moment.
“Playing at St Albans was a really great experience but I was getting frustrated with sitting on the bench and just wanted to be back playing football and scoring goals.
“When I came back from injury I knew that I wouldn’t get back into the first team immediately, but I was a substitute for a long time and I was itching to be back out on the pitch.
“When I wasn’t playing on a Saturday I came down to watch Haringey this season and they have been playing some brilliant football.
“I had the opportunity to move to a couple of National League South clubs but Haringey is the right fit for me at the moment and I can’t wait to hit the ground running.”
Gabriel fired nine league goals for St Albans during his brief spell at Clarence Park and when asked to pick out his favourite moment of the season so far, he needs little time to think.
“The match against Chelmsford in September was incredible!” beams the striker.
The game started in disastrous fashion for Ian Allinson’s side as they went into the half-time break at Chelmsford two goals down before a stunning second period saw Gabriel find the net on four occasions to help St Albans to a memorable victory. The striker continued: “The gaffer was really laying into us at half-time and I can remember thinking to myself that we were going to need four goals to turn the game around. “I kept my head down during the break and just thought about what I could do differently that would cause the Chelmsford defence more problems. “We came out for the second period and everything seemed to click. It was a superb 45 minutes to be a part of !”
Gabriel has now arrived at a Haringey side who are bang in form in the Bostik Premier Division.
Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Bishop’s Stortford was the White Hart Lanebased club’s seventh straight league win and lifted them to second position in the table.
“The team have the wind in their sails at the moment and everyone is targeting another promotion,” Gabriel added.
“I grew up around this area so the club is really special to me and it would be an absolute dream to help them reach the National League South.
“A lot has been written about what a great community club it is and the brilliant work that the manager (Tom Loizou) does, so there is a huge incentive for us all to get the results on the pitch.
“It’s good to be back, now it’s time to start finding the net again!”