Hitchin Town Football Club
Founded 1865, Reformed 1928
Hitchin Town 2 Aylesbury Utd 2
Sunday, September 7 2003
Two sending offs marred a poor, indisciplined game at Top Field between two sides visibly lacking in confidence.
A reshaped Hitchin may have come back twice to earn a point, but Aylesbury will have been happier with the outcome than the out-of-sorts home team.
Although they had the better of the early exchanges, with shots by Carl Drew and Adam Parker that worried the Aylesbury defence, Hitchin fell behind in the 34th minute. A Hitchin attack broke down, Greg Williams played the ball upfield and Dean Canoville ran on and placed his shot through James Robinson’s legs.
Just before the interval, Adam Parker almost equalised for Hitchin when his far post header was plucked out of the air by Aylesbury goalkeeper Isaac Rukundo.
But in the 52nd minute, Aylesbury were reduced to 10 men after Chris Bangura was dismissed for a bad tackle on Carl Williams. Three minutes later, Hitchin were level, Matt Nolan scoring with a sublime chip from 25 yards after a long ball out of defence by Owen Coll.
Parity lasted just five minutes as Aylesbury took the lead once more. A free kick by Adam Campion was met by the stooping Greg Williams, who’s glancing header beat Robinson from six yards.
Parker and Nolan both went close to scoring shortly afterwards, but Hitchin were dealt another blow when Carl Drew was sent off for an unruly challenge on Rukundo.
It was left to Parker to save the game for Hitchin in the 83rd minute. Matt Nolan’s deft backheel found Parker and he teed himself up before shooting low into the net.
And in the dying seconds, Hitchin almost snatched victory, a well-worked free kick landed invitingly for Ryan Frater, but his shot was high and wild.
Hitchin: Robinson, McElroy, Rydeheard, Frater, Coll (Ayres 87), Scott (Hassan 83), Maynard (Osborn 65), Nolan, Drew, Parker, Williams