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Chelmsford City U15 v Hitchin Town U15

Sunday, April 5 2009

Having fought their way into second place in the EJA League and stayed there for several weeks, Hitchin travelled to third placed Chelmsford whom they had beaten two weeks earlier with the possibility of consolidating second place. However they were very, very disappointing and at no stage of the game did they look like coming away with any points.

The 3-0 score-line could have been more, so comprehensively were they out-played – they were second best in all departments.

Chelmsford started brightly and coped with the bumpy pitch much better than their opponents, pressing forward against a hesitant defence and creating several good chances. It took them twenty minutes to open their account however when a ball over the top of the Hitchin defence caught them square and unable to cope with the striker’s pace and he scored past the keeper who was transfixed on his line. They almost added to this five minutes later when a powerful header came back off the bar with the keeper beaten. It was only after this that Hitchin had any sort of productive forward move with Billy Baird having a long range shot then a free kick neither of which troubled the keeper.

Indeed Hitchin rarely troubled the Chelmsford defence finding it difficult to control the ball in all areas and when they were on the ball they took too long to pass and were either robbed of the ball or allowed Chelmsford to re-group to cope with any danger.  On the other hand Chelmsford controlled and moved the ball quickly and it was inevitable that they should score again which they did after they took a short corner on the left and crossed diagonally over the Hitchin defence for one of their strikers to head in unchallenged at the far post to give them a two goal half-time lead.

The second half was pretty much a repeat of the first even though Hitchin rotated their personnel and changed formation, and they increased their lead less than five minutes into the second half with another unchallenged header, this time from a right wing cross to the far left-hand post. Three down, Hitchin then had their first and last clear chance when Dammy Benson won the ball on the left, cut along the bye-line and squared for George Duffin whose shot was too high. Chelmsford could easily have scored again but didn’t, and Hitchin did improve a bit late on without ever threatening to score.

This was Hitchin’s most disappointing effort of the season and they must improve considerably for their remaining two games if they want to maintain a respectable league position.

Result: Chelmsford City 3  Hitchin Town 0

Hitchin: Harpur, Brooke, White, Hodgson, Webb, Baird, Diack, Carthy, Pierce, Duffin, Berry. Subs:- (all used) Finan, Cartwright, Rose, Benson