Haywood United (16/02/2003)
2002 - 2003 Season, Hithercroft Under 16s



Although the weather was bitterly cold it remained dry throughout the game and the pitch was in good condition, being fairly firm but a little muddy in places. Phil Taberer had confirmed that he appears to have cracked bones in his fingers during the warm-up before last week’s game and so Phil Lines resumed the goalkeeping duties. With Shane Globe also being unavailable Hithercroft had just eleven players for this game with no subs.

The game kicked off at 10.16am and Hithercroft’s first attempt on goal came when Chris Terry sent a long high ball down the centre to Dewayne Dublin but his shot went wide. His second shot came a few minutes later from out on the right but it went just outside of the post. After 9 minutes of play Haywood opened the scoring when they brought the ball down the middle and, as Phil came forward, Lee Shears pushed the ball past him into the inside of the right-hand post. Shortly afterwards Haywood took the ball down the left wing and crossed it high over the defenders to Earl Locker. Fortunately for Hithercroft he ‘did a Giggsy’ when, with an open goal before him he hit the ball over the crossbar. (Note: the reference to ‘Giggsy’ was because Ryan Giggs had just done exactly this on the previous day in the Man Utd v Arsenal game). However, in the 34th minute Earl made amends when he received the ball on the right and powered it into the right-hand side of the net to put the home team 2-0 ahead and the scoreline remained until the half-time break.

Four minutes into the second half Haywood went on the attack and, although Phil managed to block the initial shot the ball found it’s way to Lawrence Foreman who hit the ball between two defenders to score. Another Haywood attack saw No. 6’s shot hit the crossbar and rebound out for a follow-up shot to be cleared from the goal-line. Hithercroft then took the ball and David Blackman, who had moved up into midfield for the second half, sent the ball up to Dewayne. As he advanced toward goal the keeper came out and Dewayne pushed the ball to the right in an attempt to get round him but the ball was put out of play by a defender who got to it before Dewayne could retrieve it. Phil was called upon to pull off some fine saves during this second half with the home team having many goal-scoring chances. In the 67th minute Earl, closely attended by opposing defenders Kevin and Jack, chipped the ball over Phil’s head to bring the scoreline to 4-0. The visitors had a good opportunity to score when, from a Haywood goal-kick, David collected the ball and ran towards the advancing keeper but over-hit the ball to enable the keeper to gather it. In the closing minutes Lee Shears took a shot for Haywood from outside of the 18-yard box but the ball chipped the crossbar as it went over the net. At the final whistle Haywood had deserved to take all three points but Hithercroft had shown a lot of improvement in their play over the earlier part of the season.


Haywood scorers: Earl Locker (2), Lee Shears and Lawrence Foreman.

Referee: G. Evans