Bucks CC (22/10/2000)
2000 - 2001 Season, Hithercroft Under 14s



Arriving at our ground at 9am we found that the moles are back! After clearing their hills and marking out the pitch a few spots of rain were detected. However, it held off for the first half but for the second half we had drizzle. Last season we did not do very well against Bucks CC and so we were rather apprehensive before this game, even though they had some different players this time.

Within 5 minutes of kick-off Lee Hudson punched out a shot from Bucks CC only for their ‘little’ No.9 to knock the ball back into the net. (Note ‘little’ refers to the comparative sizes of Bucks CCs 2 number 9s.) A couple of minutes later Jerome Warren just missed a goal and he had an even better chance shortly afterwards but failed to control the ball and played a soft shot to their goalkeeper. After 18 minutes Shahid Ahmad slipped over in defence and allowed the ‘little’ No.9 to get goal number two for the opposition. Jerome, then Paul Yandell and then Jerome again missed chances to score for Hithercroft. Finally, Jerome was rewarded when his next shot was punched aside by the goalkeeper but he retrieved the ball and hit it into the back of the net. Phil Lines came close to scoring and then, just before half-time Dewayne Dublin hit a shot that went under the goalkeeper’s body and brought us back to 2-2.

Five minutes after the restart Phil scored a cracking goal, so putting Hithercroft into the lead for the first time in the match. Then Jerome added 2 more. For the second of these he took the ball around the defenders and the keeper to score. Then Dewayne was brought down in the box and Shane Globe scored the penalty with a hard shot wide of the goalkeeper’s right hand. Jack Fuller hit a shot just over the Bucks CC’s crossbar before Jerome again ran through the defence and, unselfishly, passed the ball to Dewayne to score our 7th goal. Three minutes later Dewayne made his hat-trick in this, his debut League game for us. Jason Guy, who again had played a tireless and strong game in the Hithercroft defence, added another goal and Jerome then lobbed the goalkeeper to complete the final 10-2 score-line.

Rocky Hudson, although handing over his flag to Kevin Fuller this week, kept up the humour but it was a Bucks CC player who provided the cheekiest line. Just before half time Kevin Ife was receiving treatment for an ankle injury when the opposing player said “If you’ve broken your ankle can I borrow your boots?”.