Hitchin Town Football Club
"Football for the Future"
Hitchin Town U16 (Beds) v Bedford Town U16
Sunday, October 11 2009
Unbeaten Bedford Town were the visitors at the Arena on Sunday morning and they left unbeaten after a rather fortuitous 1-0 win.
In what was an entertaining game, Hitchin quickly took control and within the first ten minutes a Jonny McNamara corner was nearly squeezed in by Manny Eze and when Dan Breed forced another corner Eze headed over. Then on 15 minutes a Billy Baird run from right midfield ended with him shooting narrowly wide. With Breed and Joe Luca dominant at the back and McNamara and Hunter Diack getting the better of the midfield encounters, Hitchin were so much in control that they had 75% of the play and a single Bedford through ball which Sam Swanton smothered well was all that Bedford could muster.
Unfortunately Hitchin couldn’t turn their superiority into goals as too often the final ball was poor and there seemed to be a reluctance to pull the trigger when inside the box. Joe Webb on the left had a couple of good runs and crosses from which Baird and Mason Todd went close and numerous other good moves came to nothing. They paid the penalty for this when 5 minutes before half time a sliced clearance fell to a Bedford forward whose shot took a wicked deflection past Swanton – Bedford’s only shot of the half and this gave them an unlikely lead and heart for the second half.
Bedford did build on this in the second half where overall, honours were probably about even. Both sides had chances and on 15 minutes George Duffin shot narrowly wide from about 10 yards and Todd had a couple of off-target efforts. Jay Brooke looked to be clear from a good ball over the top but the Bedford centre half recovered to make a great last-minute tackle. At the other end Bedford had a very good spell around the 25 minute mark with three close range shots in succession well blocked and a couple of minutes later Swanton made a great save from a long range drive. Hitchin weathered this period and just had the better of the closing stages, but again couldn’t finish their good approach work and didn’t really create any clear-cut chances apart from a Todd shot which was easily saved by the keeper.
At the final whistle Bedford celebrated a victory in a game which Hitchin should have had well tied up long before half time.
Result: Hitchin Town U16 (Beds) 0 Bedford Town U16 1