Hitchin Town Football Club

Hitchin Town 0 Chippenham Town 1

Saturday, August 28 2004

Hitchin could have few complaints about their second home defeat in a week as league leaders Chippenham comfortably picked up another three points.

There was further setbacks for Hitchin, however, as strikers Darran Hay and Gavin Jaggard were both badly injured in the latter stages.

The fast-moving Chippenham side confidently controlled the game and restricted Hitchin to just one goalscoring chance in 90 minutes.

The visitors almost scored after 12 minutes when Ellis Wilmot found Sam Allison inside the area but Neil Cheek parried his shot. The best chance of the half fell to striker Martin Paul, who saw his shot tipped over the bar by Cheek.

Paul had another chance on the half-hour when a bad back-pass by Hay was seizez upon but he shot high and wild.

Chippenham continued to dominate in the second half and Stuart Maynard cleared another shot by Paul off the line. But Paul was soon on the scoresheet, heading home at the far post in the 53rd minute from Scott Walker’s cross.

In the 68th minute, Chippenham thought they should have had a penalty when Cheek appeared to pull striker Allison down.

Three minutes from time, the Canaries almost grabbed an equaliser, but Lee McCulloch’s attempt was cleared from danger by Ian Herring.

Hitchin: Cheek, Barr, Kidd, Covington, McCulloch, Cavill, Lamacraft (Duffy 64), Maynard, Hay (Hassan 81), Jaggard (Johnson 90), Bridge

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