Hitchin Town Football Club

Team Bath 1 Hitchin Town 0

Saturday, November 5 2005

Hitchin crashed to their first defeat in six games, losing to a first half goal by the students of Team Bath.

After five wins in a row, Hitchin were full of confidence when they arrived at Twerton Park, the scene of one of those five successes. The Canaries were without Josh Sozzo, however, who was injured a week ago, so started with Leeyon Phelan and Thomas Hayes up front.

Two early free kicks tested the Team Bath defence, but it was the home side that went ahead after 21 minutes. A free kick from the right was met by Sean Canham, who rifled home from close range.

Hitchin were dealt another blow when Phelan limped off to be replaced by Bilal Hassan. Despite that setback, Leon Townley saw a header cleared off the Team Bath line and Hayes had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper that failed to produce a goal.
Hitchin continued to enjoy large chunks of possession, but failed to deliver in the final third of the pitch. In fact Team Bath could have extended their lead when an overhead kick from Mark Canham caused problems just after the interval.

The Canaries started to dominate in the second period, but there was a bizarre series of events that led to two substitutes being replaced. Hassan had to go off to make way for the only partially fit Sozzo, but then Sozzo in turn had to be replaced by Jonathan Mills.

Daniel French moved up front to partner Hayes, who himself went close with a shot from the edge of the area. Although Hitchin pressured the home side, Stuart Hammonds still had to clear off the line from Jake Reid.

Hitchin Town: Wilmot, Townley, Ayres, Hammonds, Lamacraft, Cavill, Lochhead, French, Phelan (Hassan 22- Sozzo 55 – Mills 65), Hayes, Pugh

Tweet