Hitchin Town Football Club
Founded 1865, Reformed 1928
Cambridge City 4 Hitchin Town 1
Saturday, October 8 2005
Hitchin’s FA Cup dreams lived on until the second half of this third qualifying round tie, but few could complain at the final scoreline, which emphasised the gulf between Conference South and the Southern League Premier Division.
The Canaries were completely outclassed after the interval, but for a while there was a hint of an upset at Milton Road. Hitchin’s management made a surprise change to the starting line-up, bringing back striker Leeyon Phelan for his first start of the season. For just over half an hour Phelan made a genuine impact until he went off with a head injury.
In that opening spell, Hitchin took a shock 16th minute lead when Phelan set up Daniel French who cut inside and rolled the ball into the net. Seconds earlier, Lee McCulloch had cleared off the line from the impressive Mark Molesley.
Darren Salton’s men almost added another goal in the 42nd minute when a Ryan Jenner free kick was tipped over by goalkeeper Danny Naisbett. Just before the break, though, the home side went close when Craig Dobson was denied by Richard Wilmot.
In the second half, it was a different story as Cambridge threw more men up front. It was all one-way traffic and in the 55th minute, a Dobson cross caused problems in the Hitchin defence and Chris Booth fired home the equaliser.
Booth gave his side the lead five minutes later, finding the time and space to walk through the Hitchin defence and shoot into the top corner of the net. The home side added another in the 70th minute when Josh Simpson slid the ball wide of two defenders and ran on to send a low drive past Wilmot.
Three minutes later, Cambridge scored again with Booth completing his hat-trick with ease after being set-up by Molesley.
Hitchin: Wilmot, Lamacraft, Duffy, Baldry, McCulloch, McMenamin (Hassan 71), Cavill, Jenner, Phelan (Hayes 35), Sozzo, French