Missenden Juniors (11/03/2001)
2000 - 2001 Season, Hithercroft Under 14s



The weather was overcast but dry with the pitch being muddy in the goal areas but good elsewhere. The pitch sloped from goal to goal and Hithercroft played downhill in the first half. Rocky Hudson resumed his linesman duties.

Three minutes into the game James Gover opened the scoring for Missenden from a long throw-in taken by Christian Adams and then added another 7 minutes later. Hithercroft began to buck up and Jason Guy, their captain, was in full flow down the wing when he was brought down by the Missenden number 2 who was shown the red card by the referee. Jason had sustained a knee injury and had to leave the field and took no further part in the game. Jason’s departure was very noticeable in the way that Hithercroft continued as their ‘general’ was no longer able to spur them on and his strength and speed was sorely missed. After 20 minutes Matt Bienkowski took the ball downfield, rounded the Hithercroft defenders and keeper to score Missenden’s third goal and shortly afterward he scored again. He injured his ankle in the process and was temporarily ‘subbed’ for treatment. Subsequently, Lee Hudson was put under a lot of pressure on three separate occasions in the Hithercroft goal but pulled off some fine saves. Hithercroft’s Shahid Ahmed had to leave the field just before half time for treatment to a knee injury from a stud and during his absence Jerome Warren played a cross to Dewayne Dublin, who scored for Hithercroft. At the break the score was 4-1 to the home team.

Seven minutes into the second half Jerome and Dewayne inter-passed and crossed the ball to Adeel Iqbal who took a shot. The Missenden keeper dived and got his fingers to the ball, taking the momentum from it but Adeel followed in to score Hithercroft’s second. Then, from a throw-in at the other end of the pitch, James Gover put the ball wide of the goalkeeper for his third goal. After 26 minutes, also from a throw-in, Phil Lines hit the ball forward to Mitchell Ash who hit a hard shot that went into the net in spite of the Missenden keeper getting his hand to the ball. Then followed continued attacks on the Hithercroft goal with James Probert coming from defence to score a great goal and Nick Hawkes adding another with a powerful shot from outside the penalty area that hit the crossbar and came down into the net. Matt Bienkowski added another for Missenden just before the final whistle to give the home side an 8-3 victory.