Hitchin Town Football Club
Founded 1865, Reformed 1928
Stamford 2 Hitchin Town 2
Saturday, April 30 2005
The sun was shining, the Hitchin fans were in good spirit and the Canaries said goodbye to two of their favourites sons, Ian Scott and Mark Burke. The game itself was unimportant, but the underlying feeling among Hitchin's followers was "never again".
Hitchin have finished in the safety zone with some points to spare - five in fact - but nobody could disguise their disappointment at what must surely be the worst season endured by the club for almost 40 years.
Darren Salton gave Scott and Burke the chance to play one more time and to be truthful they were the best players on the pitch. How Hitchin's young manager must have wanted the clock to turn back five years in order that he can benefit from the know-how of the durable duo!
Stamford took the lead after 19 minutes through debutant Donovan Reed, and it was the one and only highlight from the first half.
After the break, Hitchin responded with two goals in 11 minutes. The first, after 48 minutes, saw Shane Hill rob Stamford skipper Gary Butterworth before passing to Wayne Mills who shot through the goalkeeper's legs.
Hill was the creator, from a Scott pass, of Hitchin's second goal in the 56th minute. He slid the ball to Mark Bridge who shot low and hard past Darren Watts.
In the 71st minute, Stamford levelled through Carl Holmes, who played a neat one-two before shooting past Richard Wilmot.
That was about it - Hitchin drew for the third successive game but nobody had forgotten that the last win had been 11 games ago. A busy summer seems guaranteed for messrs Salton and Gillard - especially if Hitchin are to improve upon the current showing.
Hitchin: Wilmot, Gibb (Lamacraft h/t), Duffy, Burke, Ayres, Scott, Hassan, Cavill, Hill, Lewis (Mills h/t), Bridge
