Wingrave Juniors (30/09/2001)
2001 - 2002 Season, Hithercroft Under 15s



This Sunday our game started in dull cloudy weather with rain arriving for the final quarter of the match. Pat Vaughey had repainted the posts during the week and we had some new nets available. This week our squad was further depleted with the departure of James Moody and we have David Blackman, Duane White, Ruari Kerr and Jack Fuller out with injuries. Therefore, we were only able to field 10 players and Wingrave could only provide the basic 11 with no reserves. Our visitors had difficulty finding their way to our ground and so the game kicked off at a little late at 10.15 am.

After six minutes Wingrave opened the scoring with a hard shot which went over Lee Hudson as he came forward. Then Jack Butterfield had five more shots for the visitors, the first two going wide, the next two over the crossbar and the last wide again. However, after thirty-two minutes Tommy Kibbles added to Wingrave’s lead with a fine long shot that went over Lee’s head. Four minutes later Dewayne Dublin literally used his head to retrieve a goal for Hithercroft. The home team attacked again when Shane Globe played the ball upfield for Dewayne to collect and he took it wide and then hit it across the goal. As the ball went along the goalmouth Kevin Ife raced forward but was beaten to it by a Wingrave defender who cleared it at the expense of a corner. Just before half-time Tommy added to the visitor’s tally with another of his long shots leaving Hithercroft 1-3 behind.

Two minutes after the restart Dewayne pulled another goal back and Lee managed to save another two shots from Wingrave attacks. With twelve minutes of the secnd half gone Shane again provided the ball for Dewayne to score from a tight angle bringing the score level at 3-all. However, Tommy Kibbles scored twice more unfortunately sustaining an injury in the second when colliding with Hithercroft’s goalkeeper and having to briefly leave the field for treatment. Then Hithercroft came back again when Jason Guy, the captain, slipped the ball to Adeel Iqbal, ran on to collect the returned ball and scored from an acute angle bringing Hithercroft just one goal behind (4-5) after 26 minutes of the half had elapsed. Five minutes later Tommy added another goal to his collection, slipping the ball past Lee who had come racing out of his area in an attempt to block the shot. Just before the final whistle he collected the ball from Lee’s goal-kick and fired the ball back into the net to make the result 7-4 to the visitors.

This had been a very good game, played in good spirit and with Wingrave deserving their win but with Hithercroft battling right to the end. The referee was Steven Greenhill and Des Ife ran the line for Hithercroft.


Hithercroft’s ‘Man of the Match’ was shared by Dewayne Dublin, David Hill and Kevin Ife.

Wingrave Juniors’ ‘Man of the Match’ was awarded to Tommy Kibbles and Sebastian Brooks.