Hitchin Town Football Club

Soham Town Rangers 2 Hitchin Town 3

Monday, August 30 2010

Hitchin beat Soham Town for the first time and recorded a victory that was far more convincing than the scoreline suggests, sending the Canaries to the top of the table.

Canaries top table and break hoodoo
Three excellent goals, some flowing attacking play and three points. What more could Carl Williams and the Hitchin entourage ask for? In reality, the margin of victory was far greater than one goal in terms of balance of play and chances created (and wasted).

Hitchin should have been home and dry in 20 minutes, but in the end, they had to endure a nervy finale that saw them concede a sloppy goal.

Hitchin had two chances in the first couple of minutes, missed by Jamie Arlick and Tom Mustapha. The latter, in particular, had a very productive first half, using his speed to outfox the Soham defence. 

The Canaries had already made their intentions known long before opening the scoring on 18 minutes. Tony Fontenelle almost netted when he weaved his way through the Soham defence, only to see his shot saved by Daniel Bircham. But Mustapha gave Bircham no chance with his blistering shot from Ieaun Lewis’s tee-up to send Hitchin ahead.
Soham were not shot-shy and Dubi Ogbonna had two chances to score when his speed took advantage of some uncertain defending.

Arlick wasn’t having the best of luck at the other end, racing through to be denied by Bircham and also seeing a header saved. Richard Howell’s free kick was also well handled by the Soham keeper.

Hitchin’s second goal came on the stroke of half-time and was another belter of a volley from Mustapha, who turned cartwheels round the floor after netting.

Anyone expecting a show-boating second half would have been disappointed. Soham pulled a goal back on 57 minutes when Deakin Napier  capitalised on a mistake and shot past Martin Bennett

In the 72nd minute, any worries about a Soham comeback were quashed by a spectacular finish from Jon Wordsworth, volleying home a Howell free kick.
Liam George and Tom Pepper almost added further goals for the Canaries, but it was Soham who added the final touch of the game, Ogbonna driving into the net following a free kick

It was never as close as it finished and Williams was launching his enquiry into why  his team only won by the odd goal in five as the crowd filed home.