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Hitchin Hawks U9 v Shefford U9

Saturday, February 23 2008

It was a deceptively cold day as the Hitchin Horde descended upon Shefford. The quality of the pitch didn’t bode well for an easy game, the ground was very rough and the pitch very wide given its length.

The Hawks started off brightly though as suspected the going was quite tough with the pitch really slowing the ball down as well as the players. Despite this the Hawks produced some very good linked up passing. Ryan made a superb pass down the wing to George who flicked the ball onto Ben who was eventually robbed of possession by the Shefford defence. As both teams settled down there was some good end to end football with some quality Shefford defending. There was a good run by Ben and Tom passing the ball between them as they pushed forward and eventually they managed to force a corner that was cleared by the Shefford defence.

A rapid run down the right wing from Ben produced an excellent square cross to Tom who just failed to control the ball as it ran away from him. The Hawks continued to attack and were eventually awarded a free kick due to a clumsy tackle by a Shefford defender. Ben struck the ball cleanly and Tyler was in the box to head the ball toward the goal, but it just slipped over the bar. The Hawks eventually regained possession and managed to force another corner. Tyler stepped up and struck a cracking ball into the box and Ben stepped forward to place the ball in the corner of the net [1-0].

Shefford responded with a strong counter attack and had a powerful shot on goal that was just left of its target. As the first half concluded the teams remained very evenly matched.

As the second half got underway Shefford came out meaning business from the off. They pushed forward forcing the Hawks onto the back foot and a direct shot on goal gained a deflection off Ryan as he tried to clear the ball to make it [1-1].

Lifted by the equaliser Shefford continued to keep the Hawks on the back foot with the Hawks midfield forced to adopt a defensive role. Another Shefford shot deflected off the post and shocked the Hawks into pushing forward more. As the Hawks managed to force numerous corners, Tyler found Ben several times from the corner. Ben’s first chance was deflected by the keeper and another chance was just wide of the right post.

Shefford were not in the business of slowing down however, and continued to push forward forcing some quality play from the Hawks defence. Both Ryan and Ollie did a sterling job in closing down the Shefford forwards; however Ali did have to make a couple of quality saves to keep the Hawks in the game.

Ben had another shot on goal that was just over the bar and then in the closing stages of the game Shefford had a period of strong possession but were unable to get a result. Ali was forced to make a brave save at the feet of a Shefford attacker to keep the score level.

It was not the best of performances for the Hawks, but given the state of the pitch they did very well to only concede one goal. The final score line was a fair result given both teams were evenly matched.

Hawks: Alistair Moatt; Ryan Cafferkey; Oliver Garner; George Fitter; Tyler Gray; Ben Wilmot; Zac Laycock; Tom Pickett; Ed Routh.

Result: Hawks 1 – Shefford 1