Hitchin Town Football Club
"Football for the Future"
Herts U16 Challenge Cup Final
Sunday, April 18 2010
With the County Ground in Letchworth basking in glorious sunshine, Sundays Final promised much. Hitchin had battled their way to this year's final coming through the tougher half of the draw and beating two of the early season favourites along the way, Boreham Wood who were dispatched in the 2nd round 3-2, and Stevenage Borough 1-4 A.E.T and penalties in the semi final.
The game was a little slow to get started and Welwyn had the first attack of the game, with the Hitchin defence sleeping, the Welwyn forward fired over from 18 yards with the ball taking a deflection for the games first corner, which was dealt with comfortably by Swanton in the Hitchin goal.
The early scare pushed Hitchin into action and they quickly set the pattern of play for what remained of the half, Hitchin passing and moving, and Welwyn taking a longer ball approach! On ten minutes Hitchin’s first chance fell to Matt White who headed over from a Baird corner. The breakthrough came after twenty five minutes, a long ball from sweeper Joe Luca found Baird in space just outside the Welwyn penalty box, he headed the ball in to the space behind the centre back and in front of the keeper, and Andre Pierce won the ball to head Hitchin in front. From now until half time Hitchin dominated the play, being frustrated by both the post and the offside flag before the whistle for half time went.
The second half started much as the first had finished. Hitchin moving the ball round looking for space in behind the Pegasus defence and did manage to create some further chances which were spurned. On sixty five minutes good work down the right by Manny Eze and Scott Berry put in Tremayne Charles whose shot came back off the bar; falling kindly to Jay Brooke, to tap in, only for the assistant referee to rule the effort offside.
The pace of the game and the heat of the day were having a large effect on the Welwyn players several of whom fell victim to cramp, but undeterred with five minutes Welwyn created their best chance of the game, some neat work down the left put in their central midfielder, whose drive was destined for the top corner, forcing swanton into a great save, the resulting corner was cleared and moments later the ref blew the final whistle.
Captain Matt White collected the trophy and Hitchin celebrated a fine win.
The team has performed remarkably well over the season. A big thank you to our sponsors Karlson Workplace Technology
Result: Welwyn Pegasus U16 0 Hitchin Town Youth U16 1
Hitchin Squad: Sam Swanton, Micheal Johnson, Ryan Finan, Scott Berry, Dan Breed, Matt White, Joe Luca, Joe Webb, Frazer Harper, Josh O’Brien, Billy Baird, Jonny McNamara, Tremayne Charles, Manny Eze, Jay Brooke, Harrison Rose, Macauley Mitchell, Andre Pierce, Mason Todd