Marlow Youth - Friendly (06/04/2003)
2002 - 2003 Season, Hithercroft Under 16s



This was a hastily arranged game as Hithercroft have now completed their season and Marlow Youth had this date free before their final game (against Totteridge) next week. The weather was cloudy and quite cold but the pitch was dry and hard. The Marlow manager, Tony McGuire, was the referee and our assistant coach, Luke, ran the line for Hithercroft to give me a well-earned rest. Tony had agreed that we could play some players who are not registered with us and so Tony Saunderson and Ralph started off with our own players Phil Lines, Luke Patton, David Blackman, Chris Terry, Matt Laughlin, Robin Graham, Andy Morgan and Dewayne Dublin. Kevin Ife had gone to direct Jonny to pick up Shane Globe and so Hithercroft began with 10 players.

The game kicked off at 11.20am and after 5 minutes Marlow had taken the lead through their No. 8. Six minutes later Marlow’s Dan Birch received the ball in the Hithercroft 18-yard box with his back to the goal, turned and drove the ball into the net to extend his team’s lead. At this point Kevin returned and joined the game, bringing Hithercroft up to 11 players. Dan Birch then attempted an identical move to his last goal but this time his final shot went wide. In the 19th minute Marlow’s No 8 also copied the ‘turn and shoot’ move and was on target, putting Marlow 3-0 ahead. Matt then made way for Shane to come on and some positional changes were made. Four minutes later David Blackman used his head twice to bring the ball under control and then sent the ball down the middle to Dewayne Dublin. He collected it, turned and hit the ball into the visitor’s net to get a goal back for Hithercroft. In the 29th minute Phil came off his goal line and attempted to kick the ball clear but it ricochetted from the advancing Dan Birch and rolled towards the left post and Dan, following up, had an easy tap to turn the ball into the goal and giving his side a 4-1 lead. Then Hithercroft began an attack with interpassing between Dewayne and Shane but Shane’s shot at goal went wide. On the 34th minute David sent a long ball down the middle, Shane jumped over it allowing it to run to Dewayne. Dewayne then sent the ball forward for Shane to run onto and, from 15 yards out, he hit a superb shot into the net to bring the score to 4-2 and this was the scoreline at half time.

For the second half, which started at 12.08pm, Hithercroft brought on Matt S., Lawrence, Adam and Ben and took off Phil, Chris, Andy and Tony with Luke taking on the goal-keeping duties. After 5 minutes Adam provided Hithercroft’s third goal, showing some deft footwork in the process. Two minutes later Adam took the ball down the left and crossed it for Ben to head the ball past the Marlow keeper to level the score at 4-all. Kevin then took the ball down the right wing, sent it across to the middle to Adam who passed it back to Dewayne but his shot went over the crossbar. At 12.22pm Hithercroft took the lead when Lawrence, at the left corner of the 18-yard box, hammered the ball into the inside of the left-side netting. Dan then tried a shot for Marlow from out on the left but the ball came down onto the crossbar and went out of play for a goal-kick. Ralph then came off and was replaced by Phil who continued to play out on the field, leaving Luke to continue in goal. Ben, who had previously dropped back into a more defensive position, took the ball down the right wing and crossed the ball into the middle for Adam to hit the ball wide of the post. Then Phil pushed the ball to Adam on the left wing and Adam turned inside and shot the ball into the back of the net, giving Hithercroft a 6-4 lead in the 29th minute of the half. Three minutes later Matt Laughlin returned and Adam came off. At 12.44pm Shane took the ball in the middle of the field and passed it to Dewayne, who had positioned himself on the right, and he struck the ball into the Marlow net to extend the home team’s lead to 7-4. However, Marlow were not finished yet and one minute later were awarded a free kick just outside Hithercroft’s 18-yard box. The short ball was played back to Dan who lifted it over the wall and into the top left corner of the net to pull Marlow back to 7-5 and this was the score when the final whistle went.

This had been an entertaining game and had been enjoyed by both sides.


Referee: Tony McGuire

Hithercroft scorers: Dewayne (2), Adam (2), Shane, Ben and Lawrence.

Marlow scorers: Dan (3) and No 8 (2)