Hitchin Town Football Club
Founded 1865, Reformed 1928
Hitchin Town 0 Kings Lynn 5
Tuesday, September 27 2005
Hitchin crashed to their worst home defeat in a league game since February 1988 as Kings Lynn went rampant at Top Field.
Not since Hayes beat the Canaries by five goals in the Canaries first-ever relegation season have the home fans had to suffer such a humiliation. But in truth, Kings Lynn could have been five goals up by half-time, the traffic was so one-way.
Goalkeeper Richard Wilmot made two early saves to prevent Kings Lynn from scoring, but in the 16th minute, he could only parry the ball to Danny Bloomfield who scored the opener goal.
Although the ball rarely crossed the halfway line in the first 20 minutes, Hitchin struck the woodwork twice in a matter of seconds. In the 27th minute, a header from Josh Sozzo hit the bar and within a minute, Kings Lynn defender Grant Cooper sliced the ball against his own post.
Eight minutes into the second half, Kings Lynn scored again, Jack Defty heading home from Mark O’Halloran’s cross. Hitchin made a triple substitution in order to change the game, but the visitors were in no mood to loosen their grip on things.
In the 63rd minute, Bloomfield hit his second of the game with a 25-yard low drive that rolled in off the post. The Canaries were now reeling and Kings Lynn asserted further pressure, with O’Halloran scoring after 80 minutes with a low shot after the ball ran loose in the area.
Hitchin’s misery was completed in the 85th minute when James Bunn was brought down by Wilmot and the Kings Lynn substitute netted from the penalty spot.
Hitchin: Wilmot, Lamacraft, Duffy, Cretton, Ayres, McMenamin (Lochhead 57), French, Mills (Jenner 57), Sozzo, Hayes, Pugh (Brudge 57)