Haywood United (01/12/2002)
2002 - 2003 Season, Hithercroft Under 16s



This game was in doubt because of the recent bad weather and Pam had inspected the pitch on Saturday morning and again on Sunday morning. There were a few puddles in the goal areas but we drained these by making holes with the corner flags. Rain was falling before and during the first half of the game but it cleared for the second half.. Duane White had left us to join Wycombe Lions but David Blackman was available to play his first game for us. Kevin Ife was captain and only eleven players turned up for the start of our game, Adeel Iqbal arriving late.

In the first half both sides appeared evenly matched and both held their formations making it quite a tight game. After 20 minutes Dewayne Dublin sent a shot over from the right and the Haywood keeper had to rapidly ‘back-pedal’ to push it over the net. Then Kevin took the ball down the right wing and crossed it but, once again, the Haywood keeper intercepted it. The visitors then attacked and Earl Locker hit the ball from outside the 18-yard box which went over the crossbar. Hithercroft’s David Blackman then sent a long ball downfield to the right wing and the ball was crossed into the middle for Shane Globe to take a shot which hit the upright. Following a throw-in Shane tried a long high shot which came down just outside the Haywood post. After 36 minutes the stale-mate ended when Haywood played the ball down the right wing and crossed the ball into the goal area. The Hithercroft goalkeeper, Phil Lines, pushed the ball onto the post and it rebounded into the path of Carl Perrottet who sent the ball into the back of the net. At half time the visitors were 1-0 ahead.

In the second half Hithercroft began to stray out of position and reverted to their habit of playing long balls down the middle in hope of it being collected by another Hithercroft player. After 19 minutes Haywood brought the ball down the right wing and crossed it into the box for Carl to head the ball over the advancing keeper and put Haywood 2-0 up. Hithercroft immediately responded within 60 seconds when Kevin took the ball down the middle of the field, sent it on to Dewayne who avoided a tackle, took the ball past the advancing keeper and scored the opening goal for the home team. Haywood then went back on the attack, their No. 8 putting the ball over the Hithercroft crossbar. After 25 minutes of second half play Haywood’s Chris Deeming took the ball down the right wing and played a shot from some distance out which went past Phil to give Haywood their third goal. Shortly afterwards Earl Locker scored the visitor’s fourth goal and in the 33rd minute Chris Deeming scored his second goal giving Haywood the victory by 5 goals to 1.


Hithercroft scorer: Dewayne Dublin

Hithercroft M.O.M David Blackman


Haywood scorers: Carl Perrottet (2), Chris Deeming (2) and Earl Locker
Referee: Rob Yandell