Hitchin Town Football Club
"Football for the Future"
Bedford Town U16 v Hitchin Town(Beds) U16
Sunday, October 25 2009
Having been unlucky 1-0 losers to Bedford recently Hitchin travelled to Bedford with revenge on their minds and the achieved this in emphatic fashion with a resounding 6-0 victory.
On a beautiful grassy pitch but with a difficult side-wind, the opening 10 minutes were fairly even but Hitchin's good passing football gradually gained the ascendancy. But as ever it looked like their inability to turn possession into goals still haunted them as McCauley Mitchell, Manny Eze and Lee Bowler all went close. But just after midway through the first half they got off the mark when Eze cut past two defenders and his left-foot effort couldn’t be scrambled away by the full-back and keeper.
This opened the floodgates and Hitchin put together attack after attack and soon doubled the lead when Bowler met a right-wing Eze cross to loop a header over the keeper and just under the bar. Then before half-time a Matt White header from a corner on the right was blocked on the line only for Bowler to fire in a left-foot volley for his second giving Hitchin a deserved 3-0 lead at half-time. At the other end Bedford could never capitalise on their good approach play and Sam Swanton had only a couple of comfortable saves to make.
The second half saw Hitchin resume where they had left off pushing forward for more goals and they were restricting Bedford to only long-range efforts. They went close several times before a Bowler free-kick from the left was only parried by the keeper and Jay Brooke was on hand to head in the loose ball. Mitchell who worked hard up front went close on several occasions and was unlucky not to get on the score sheet but Hitchin were determined to get more and when Billy Baird sent in a great right foot shot, the keeper got down to stop this but Brooke was again alert to the rebound and scored his second and Hitchin’s fifth from close in.
Bedford then rallied for a short spell but couldn’t really get in a serious blow as Michael Johnston dealt well with crosses and through balls and made a great one-handed save from after a mix-up in the Hitchin defence. However Hitchin soon regained the initiative and finished on a high note with a sixth goal when Bowler completed his hat-trick with a right-foot shot after cutting inside from the left wing.
At last Hitchin looked to have found their shooting boots and if they can continue in the same vein they can look forward to a successful season.
Result: Bedford Town U16 0 Hitchin Town(Beds) U16 6