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Hitchin Town Hurricanes U11's v Bushmead U11's

Saturday, November 18 2006

Hurricanes fall at the first fence in the Chiltern Sevens League Cup First Round against Luton based Bushmead in the dying seconds of extra time.

The match started brightly enough for the Canaries as after an initial first few minutes of midfield battling, Josh broke on the left wing and put a lovely ball through to Adam who controlled it well before slamming it into the back of the oppositions net to make it 1 - 0 with just five minutes gone! There was much rejoicing by players and parents alike as all thought the same thing..."easy, it's in the bag already!" Wrong!!!
 
Bushmead restarted and immediately went out looking for the equalizer, earning a free kick on the edge of the box and forcing a couple of early corners. All however, were either cleared by Jack and Simmy in defence or well saved by Matt. Hurricanes responded to this with several good attacks on goal that deserved to up the lead, but luck was down as Adam and Rhys both saw good efforts skim the crossbar and Josh rattled the post. Within the last minute of the first period however, Bushmead countered, got into our area and after a goal mouth scramble that seemed to last an age, scored to pull it back level. Half time 1 - 1.
 
The home side kicked off the second half and almost immediately regained the lead as Jack, now up front, put a good powerful shot just wide. Our lads continued the search for their second, and soon they were back on top after a sweet ball through from Rhys in centre midfield left Jack to slide a low shot into the bottom left hand corner and at last break his goal drought that has plagued him since the start of the season. 2 - 1. The lead though lasted all of a few minutes as suddenly Bushmead were let clean through on goal and their striker made no mistake in beating poor Matt in a one on one. 2 - 2 and into extra time!
 
The first ten minutes of the extra time flashed past, with neither side managing to find the net though not for lack of trying by both squads. Throughout the period our defence, now Michael and Jakob held firm, whilst Rhys, Josh and Alfie battled in midfield to get the ball upto Adam. It was tense, but remained 2 - 2 into the last period.
 
The final part of extra time was nail-biting stuff to say the least, as every player on the pitch was desperate to win this match. Bushmead put several shots close while at the other end Josh once again hit the woodwork with one and the side netting with another. Adam came close on a couple of occasions and Rhys again put one over the bar. Personally, as the minutes ticked by I was almost hoping that it would go to penalties as it seemed like whatever the lads tried on pitch the goals simply eluded them. Sadly it didn't come to that though, as literally within the final minute of this epic, the visitors seemed to find the winner from nowhere, just how the ball ended up it the back of the net who knows as even the midfielder who scored it seemed surprised. With the final whistle came the obvious disappointment for the Town boys as they were destined to advance no further in the League Cup, in a game that in all truth, could have, and should have been won in the first half of normal time. The determination's there but luck has deserted us again.
 
FINAL SCORE (after extra time)
 
HITCHIN TOWN 2 BUSHMEAD 3
(Adam, Jack)
 
Man of the Match RHYS (great in midfield)

Match report by Kevin Kitchiner-Day