Marlow Youth (06/10/2002)
2002 - 2003 Season, Hithercroft Under 16s



This game, our first League game of the new season, was due to be a home game for us but, as we were unsure whether we would have repaired and repositioned our goalposts in time, Tony McGuire agreed to let us play our ‘home’ game on his pitch. This pitch was an East to West one instead of the North to South pitch that we usually meet on. The weather was sunny with a bit of a breeze and the ground was hard, which caused the ball to bounce high. We turned out with our 4 new players, 2 of whom had played against Missenden in the cup game and our 2 latest signings (Christie White and James Davies) who had not yet played for us at all.

The game kicked off promptly at 11a.m. and after 3 minutes Marlow were awarded a penalty after Riccardo Falconi (who was captain for the day) handled the ball in the penalty area. Fortunately, Marlow’s No 3 put the ball wide of the left post. The half saw the ball going from end to end with both teams having shots at goal but the keepers had no major problems. From a corner Riccardo centred the ball and Shane Globe hit a powerful shot from about 20 yards which hit the crossbar and went out of play. Marlow brought on a couple of their three available subs after 26 minutes, this being a luxury that Hithercroft do not yet have. Ten minutes later Kevin Ife took the ball down the right wing and played a superb cross which curved towards the top right-hand corner of the net and forced the Marlow keeeper to get his hand to it to prevent the first goal. The first half ended with no score to either team but Hithercroft had just shaded the play.
The first goal came after 9 minutes of the second half when Marlow’s No 4 struck a superb curving shot from a free kick that had been awarded a long way out. It went beyond Phil Lines’s outstretched hand into the net, putting Marlow 1-0 ahead. However, a few minutes later Robin Graham played a long ball forward which saw various Hithercroft players taking shots at goal, each being blocked until Duane White put the ball into the net to level the score. Marlow’s No ? tried a long shot which hit the Hithercroft crossbar, an almost exact copy of Shane’s attempt in the first half. After 24 minutes of the half Marlow took a corner and Dan Birch got his head to the ball but his shot went wide. Just after this Dan made up for his miss when the ball was centred for Dan to collect, turn and hit it past Phil to restore Marlow’s lead. Shortly before the final whistle Marlow’s No9 ran into the 18-yard box, closely attended by two Hithercroft players, and he had time to push the ball wide of the keeper to make the result Hithercroft 1 - Marlow Youth 3.

It had truly been a game of two halves with Hithercroft having the edge in the first half but Marlow keeping up the pressure and making the most of their chances in the second as Hithercroft tired. It was good to see the Hithercroft newcomers settling quickly into the team and, hopefully, if we can sign up a few more players then we should benefit from the availability of subs.


Referee: Mr S. Luck

Hithercroft scorer: Duane White

Marlow Youth goals: No. 4, Dan Birch, No. 9