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Hitchin Town U14 COVE v Bishops Stortford U14 BLUES

Sunday, February 14 2010

It wasn't quite the St Valentine's Day Massacre but it was a win for COVE nonetheless, and an important one at that after a strongly contested, close game against fellow title contenders Bishop Stortford. There's a lot of history between the teams leading, as expected, to a match full of heavy challenges that were destined to keep the referee a very busy man in a most unenviable job!
 
Such was the competitive and physical nature of this encounter that it was a full ten minutes before either side managed to fully escape the midfield battle ground and make an assault on goal, but when it did happen, it was to Hitchin's advantage with Adam Ward taking the first shot of the handful that were to materialise in the first half. The attempt was cleared behind and the resulting corner met by Michael Trever who saw his low close range shot blocked, but it was an encouraging sign of intent by the Canaries. Just three minutes later, the first goal came their way. Excellent link up play between Tom Pike and Ward gave Josh Howard the chance to launch one of his superb trade mark crosses that Cameron Swinburn hit beautifully past the keeper and into the net.
 
The visitors responded strongly to the opener, and suddenly the game changed into a hard hitting exciting end to end contest. After forcing their first corner, which came to nothing, they attacked again down the centre, firing a rasping shot from distance just over the bar. Then came the first of a multitude of free kicks as Ward was upended, and from 40 yards out Howard fired on target, making the Blues keeper save at full stretch. Moments later, it was Scott Mardell's turn to make a similarly good stop as Stortford had a well taken free kick from 20 yards out on the right. Another foul gave Jordan Massey a chance from a set piece from around the same distance but he sent the ball just wide of the far post.
 
The main scare of the half for COVE came within the last few minutes as a forward player broke through our defence to find himself one on one with Mardell but the Canaries number one stopped the strikers almost point blank shot superbly. He quickly sent the ball back into midfield where Danny Burton received and set up Ward for the shot but the low strike failed to beat the goalkeeper. An exhilarating first period ended and Hitchin led by just the single goal.
 
As the game recommenced it soon became apparent that Bishop Stortford were not about to be fazed by being behind, and after a wasted early corner they drew level, breaking down the right. Rather than cross the ball in, their wing man saw an opportunity and took it very well indeed finding the top left corner. Hitchin restarted and immediately went on the hunt to regain the lead as a corner earnt, and taken well by Ward, almost gave Chris Smith the honour but his hard close range effort was cleared off the line.
 
The Blues continued to push COVE to the limit but were caught out on the counter-attack. Mardell sent a long and accurate kick to Massey on the right who crossed in to Ward for the winner, a lightning reaction of a strike that gave the keeper no chance. Sadly, the celebrations were slightly dampened shortly after as, during yet another midfield clash, Burton was shown a card for a vicious challenge, and, as it wasn't the first challenge of its type, he could count himself lucky that it was yellow and not red. However, rather than risk going down to ten men, the management immediately replaced Burton, with Sam Chapman, for the remainder of the game.
 
Though Hitchin were now back in front there was still quarter of an hour remaining and with a fragile lead they knew that they had to muster all their abilities to see themselves through to the end. Unlike the Royston giveaway last week, they did just that and in style too. It was also a stroke of luck that, although the opposition did manage a couple of sorties on goal, the Blues had mostly run out of steam as COVE played their hearts out and began to slowly dominate play. Indeed, the lads were unlucky not to extend their lead as Swinburn had a shot cleared off the line, Massey went close on three occasions and Ward skimmed the post.
 
It was a hard earned three points but it would probably prove to be one of the most important wins of the season, as Stortford posed a real threat and on our next meeting will have the home advantage. Hopefully, this result has given COVE the psychological edge. More importantly, it could be the turning point away from the recent poor showings that saw the team drop from top spot and slide down to third. Largely thanks to Biggleswade and Royston both suffering unexpected defeats, the Canaries are now back in second place, just one point behind Fairlands, with a game in hand. Another tough one next week away to Biggleswade, and the boys need to play with the same determination because, as the league enters its second phase, it's very close at the top and every point is vital from now on.
 
HITCHIN TOWN   (1) 2   BISHOP STORTFORD   (0) 1
Swinburn 13                  42
Ward 50
 
Man of the Match   Josh Howard (yet another first class performance!)
 
Match report by Kevin Kitchiner-Day