Risborough Colts (23/03/2003)
2002 - 2003 Season, Hithercroft Under 16s



The ground was firm following a week of dry sunny weather and today was no exception. Hithercroft were able to start with only ten players as Phil Taberer is still injured, David Blackman has damaged his wrist and Kevin Ife was unable to play for the first half of the game.

The game kicked off at 11.03am and after three minutes Hithercroft had taken the lead when Dewayne Dublin’s shot was pushed up into the air by the Risborough keeper and Shane Globe gathered it and went down as his shot was blocked. However, whilst still laying on the ground he swung his foot round and scooped the ball into the Risborough net. Following a hand-ball by a visiting player just inside his own half Adeel Iqbal took a long high free kick that reached Dewayne and he headed the ball across to Shane but the Risborough goalkeeper came out and plucked the ball from Shane’s head. A thow-in from Risborough’s No. 14 went into the goal area but their No. 22 headed the ball over the crossbar and then, from another throw-in their next shot hit the crossbar. After 17 minutes Risborough took another throw-in, this time from the left wing, and the ball came across to the right of the goal being crossed back for the No20 to lift the ball over Phil Lines’s head into the net to level the score. Then, within a minute, Risborough had added to their score following a long ball played down the middle which resulted in a simple shot, Phil having been drawn from his goal-line. Adeel then went on a run down the left and sent the ball across to Dewayne who attempted to lob the ball over the advancing keeper but the shot was too high. Luke Patton, the Hithercroft captain for the day, departed from the pitch for a short period with an injury leaving Hithercroft temporarily with nine players. The next goal came at 11.25 when a Risborough corner came across into the goal area for the No. 11 to head the ball down onto the ground from where it rebounded up into the Hithercroft net, giving Phil no chance to prevent it and so Risborough were 3-1 ahead. Thirty minutes into the game the visitors increased their lead when, from a long throw-in, Hithercroft’s Andy Morgan failed to clear the ball sending it across the front of the goal from where Risborough’s No. 11 back-healed the ball into the net. Two minutes later Risborough’s No. 9, who was outside the 18-yard box on the left, hit a fierce shot that went high over Phil’s head and put the visitors 5-1 up. Then Hithercroft’s Chris Terry took the ball down the right and sent it just inside the goal-line where Dewayne gathered it but his shot was pushed wide by the goalkeeper for a corner. Shane took the kick but the ball went directly into the side-netting. In the 37th minute Risborough played the ball down the middle of the field to their No. 14 and he lobbed the ball over Phil to add another goal to their collection. Two minutes later Shane sent a long throw-in to Dewayne, who was completely clear in the middle of the field, and he steadied the ball, advanced on the keeper and then hammered the ball home to bring Hithercroft back to 6-2 down. Within a minute, however, Risborough hit back when they took the ball along the left and sent it inside for their No. 11, right in front of the posts, to pop the ball into the net for a 7-2 lead at half time.

For the second half, which kicked off at 11.52am, Kevin joined his Hithercroft team-mates so bringing them up to eleven players. Unfortunately, shortly after the game had got back underway Matt Laughlin had to leave the field for a short while following a collision. Phil pulled off some fine saves in this second half, the first occuring when he had three Risborough players bearing down on him and he went for the player in possession, blocking his shot. On the 9th minute of the half Risborough’s No. 14 sent a high ball across from the right to his team mate No. 18 who headed the ball into the home team’s net to put his team 8-2 up. At this point Matt was able to rejoin his team, having recovered from his earlier knock. Thirteen minutes of second half play saw Risborough send a cross from a corner kick into the goal area where most of the players were just casually standing around. The No. 22 stuck out his foot and pushed the ball between the stationary Hithercroft defenders for Risborough’s 9th goal. Jack Fuller committed a couple of rather reckless tackles, giving away free kicks, earning him a ‘talking-to’ by the referee and the second resulting in a yellow-card. At 12.16 Adeel took a free kick that had been awarded just inside the Risborough half and sent the ball down to Dewayne but he was adjudged off-side. Three minutes later a ball sent in from a corner kick was headed on by Risborough’s No. 4 and, in spite of a suspected hand-ball incident, the ball ended up in the Hithercroft net, courtesy of No. 11, bringing the score to 10-2 in favour of Risborough. Luke Patton then took a corner from the left for Hithercroft and played it outside of the 18-yard box where Shane ran back to retrieve it, turned and sent a shot just over the crossbar. From a throw-in on the right wing Risborough’s Alex Edwards received the ball and lifted it over Phil’s head for an 11-2 lead in the 36th minute of the half. From this point on something seemed to fire up the Hithercroft team and three minutes later they sent the ball down the centre for Dewayne to collect; he turned and ran down the left of the goal hitting an acutely-angled shot into the far side of the net for Hithercroft’s third goal. Then, within a minute Hithercroft won a corner on the left and Shane’s kick went into the goal-area where Robin Graham drove the ball into the visitor’s net, scoring his first-ever goal for Hithercroft. After the restart Hithercroft again went on the attack and were hitting shot after shot but were unable to get the ball into the goal before the final whistle was blown. The final score was 11-4 to Risborough Colts.

This had been an exciting game with Risborough dominating the first half against the 10-man Hithercroft side, scoring seven goals against two. In the second half, with Kevin making up the numbers, the Hithercroft team defended more strongly and restricted Risborough to a 4-2 scoreline in that half. In the final five minutes Hithercroft had come into a purple-patch but, by then of course, it was far too late to make up the deficit. Well done to all the players and officials of both teams.


Hithercroft scorers: Dewayne Dublin (2), Shane Globe and Robin Graham.

Hithercroft MoM: Luke Patton

Risborough scorers: Rupert Tallboys (4), Ben Moore (2), John Little, Ben Timberlake, Alex Edwards and ??(2 unaccounted for)

Referee: Ian King