Hitchin Town Football Club

Swindon Supermarine 2 Hitchin Town 1

Saturday, November 12 2011

Hitchin Town went down 2-1 to a team that was near the foot of the Premier Division before kick-off. By the end of the game, Canaries fans were casting anxious eyes at the league table as Swindon Supermarine picked up only their second home win.

Highlights

9- Gray heads home Swindon’s first goal 1-0
80- Frendo and Bampton sent off
90- Allen makes it 2-0

90- Anderson heads Hitchin’s goal 2-1



Weather: Sunny, dry, crisp

Pitch: Firm

Attendance: 131

The Supermarine company created the Spitfire, an aircraft that was involved in many a dogfight in the second world war. Sadly, this game was scarcely a dogfight as the Canaries put in another tame 90 minutes to make if five without a win.

It didn’t go well from the start. When Bradley Gray nodded home Nick Stanley’s cross in the ninth minute, he was flying solo without a chaperone.

John Frendo has two half chances in the first half, but those aside, Hitchin posed little threat to the Swindon goal.  It was a half that was characterized by some quite appalling refereeing, the man in the middle content to steal the show with his over-engineered approach, and in the process booking four players, three from Hitchin.  That aside, Hitchin could have no complaints about the scoreline.

Hitchin improved in the early stages of the second half, and Zak Burke went close twice, notably when he was put clear by Luke Gregson, only for his effort to just clear the bar. Substitute Jerome Anderson was also denied when his header from a Ieuan Lewis cross was tipped over by Kent Kauppinen.

Ten minutes from time, frustration came to a head when, after a skirmish, both Frendo and Swindon’s David Bampton were both sent off.

In the 90th minute, Swindon scored their second goal and it was  just as easy as the first. Danny Allen received the ball on the flank, ran inside totally unchallenged and shot the ball into the inviting chasm.

Two minutes into added time, Hitchin pulled a goal back, Anderson crouching to head past Kauppinen from a Mitchell Cole cross. It wasn’t enough to spark a last-ditch revival.

The teams


Swindon Supermarine: Kauppinen, Lapham, Allen, Bampton, Cole, Horgan, Welk, Morris (Cook 53), Edenborough, Gray (Etheridge 59), Stanley

Unused subs: Wood, Dean, Robinson



Goals: Gray 9, Allen 90

Hitchin Town: Bennett, Pepper, Cole, Stewart, Gilbert, Lee, Donnelly (Anderson 59), Gregson, Frendo, Burke (Arlick 71), Lewis

Unused subs: Pedrycz, Edgerley, Fontenelle

Goal: Anderson 90+

Referee: K.Morris
Assistants: S.Oakey & A.Williams

Photo: Geoff Tomasson

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