Chesham Rangers (13/05/2001)
2000 - 2001 Season, Hithercroft Under 14s



The weather was warm and sunny for this, our last League game of the season, and Rob Yandell ran the line. Hithercroft were once again without their captain, Jason Guy (who has had a recurrence of his knee injury that he sustained at Missenden).

Six minutes after the start Chesham’s Jamie Reynolds shot from an angle past the diving Hithercroft keeper (Lee Hudson) to open the scoring for the home team. Four minutes later Lee dived to deflect a shot at goal and the ball fell to Jamie Reynolds to put Chesham 2-up. Although Hithercroft came more into the game, after 30 minutes Jamie repeated (almost exactly) his opening scoring move to increase Chesham’s lead. Just before the half-time whistle Chesham’s James Denham provided a simple tap to put the home team 4-0 up at the break.

Nine minutes into the second half Hithercroft, on the attack, hit the ball across the goalmouth for a Chesham defender to put the ball into his own net. This seemed to perk up the visitors and after 33 minutes they were awarded a penalty after Shane Globe was restrained by Chesham players on the ground. Dewayne Dublin scored from the penalty spot to bring Hithercroft back to 2 goals behind. Two minutes later Jerome Warren scored Hithercroft’s third goal which worried the opposition and their supporters. Right at the end of the game Chesham were awarded a penalty when one of their players was impeded in the penalty area. As Lee Hudson dived to his left he managed to get his right foot to the ball and kick it over the crossbar, so keeping the final score at 4-3 to Chesham.
The ‘Man of the Match’ for Hithercroft was Kevin Ife for his commitment in defence.

This match was also Chesham’s final match of the season and the last one for Rosemary Gurney as their Manager. She was presented with a bouquet by her ‘boys’ after the game. This result meant that, to retain 4th position in the Division we needed Elmhurst to lose or draw one of their 4 games in-hand. They played Wycombe Lions (winners of the Division this season) this same afternoon and so we awaited news with some optimism. The result was Elmhurst 1 - Wycombe Lions 3 and so we have finished 4th, two places higher than last season.