Tring Youth - League Cup (08/12/2002)
2002 - 2003 Season, Hithercroft Under 16s



Only 10 players turned out for this game and we discovered on the day that Riccardo Falconi had decided, without advance warning, that he was applying to join Totteridge. This was a repeat of the way in which our previous captain, Jason Guy, had behaved on the day of our Berks & Bucks Cup game at the start of the season. With Christie White and James Davies having to leave our team as they are no longer able to get to our games following Duane White’s recent departure we have been left with a squad of 12 players. Tring Youth are currently in third place in the third Division whilst Hithercroft are propping up all the teams in the fourth and so, with less than a full team, the result was a foregone conclusion. The weather was very cold and the game began in fine drizzle but on a pitch that was in very good condition but a little muddy on top. David Blackman was appointed Hithercroft captain for this occasion.

Kick off at 10.40am saw Tring soon on the attack but the opening goal, which came from a superb long shot from the Tring No.8 out on the left, did not occur until the 9th minute. Then, 3 minutes later, Tring’s corner from the right reached the No. 17 who turned and hammered the ball home to put Tring 2 goals up. Within a minute of the restart Tring played the ball down the right wing and sent the ball across for the No. 14 to claim their 3rd goal. Then, Hithercroft’s captain took the ball from defence down the left wing, going round numerous opposing players but nothing came from his final pass. Hithercroft then tried a move down the other wing, sending the ball infield for Dewayne Dublin, who hit it high over the crossbar. Tring then acme back on attack and had a shot which went just outside of the right-hand post. They also had a header go astray before, in the 19th minute, the ball came across from the left wing for their tall No. 4 to head it into the Hithercroft net. Tring’s 5th goal came after 27 minutes when, despite Phil Lines managing to push the ball away from the goal two or three times, the ball ended up in the back of the net. The home team then began to use their substitutes and within one minute their No. 4 added another goal to their collection.. Straight from the restart their No. 9 took the ball down the centre of the pitch with Kevin Ife in close pursuit but Kevin was unable to prevent him from scoring their 7th goal. Phil was again put under pressure and was pulling off some fine saves. In the final minute of the first half Tring’s No. 9 brought the ball into the 18-yard box and collided with David and Phil, all going down together. Unfortunately for the visitors the Tring player got back to his feet first and pushed the ball into the open goal to give Tring an 8-0 lead at the interval.

The game resumed at 11.30am and, after 2 minutes, Tring’s No. 9 extended their lead. He then followed this up with a powerful shot that, fortunately for Hithercroft, went over the crossbar. They then came close again when a shot went past Phil and was goal-bound but Luke Patton raced back and cleared the ball as it was about to cross the goal-line. Phil pulled off another fine save, jumping up to pluck the ball from overhead. Tring’s No.11 then saw his shot go over the crossbar before, in the 50th minute, three of the home team’s players ran through the Hithercroft defence and left Phil powerless to prevent Tring from reaching double-figures. However, Phil pulled off three great saves, the first by diving to his left to gather a shot from Tring’s No.17, the second by diving to his right to thwart another hard shot and the third by rushing out to punch clear a shot that had been crossed in from the wing. In the 68th minute Tring scored their 11th goal but 2 minutes later Dewayne Dublin pulled one back for Hithercroft. Could this be the start of a fantastic comeback from the 10-man team?.....No. In the 75th minute Tring’s No.9 came down the left, with Luke in close attendance, and hit a shot which rebounded from the Hithercroft keeper to give him a second shot over which he made no mistake. The final goal of the match occured 2 minutes from the final whistle from a fierce shot from Tring’s No.17 that was hit from 25 yards out. This gave Tring the victory by 13 goals to 1.

After the match the referee, the Tring manager and some of their supporters expressed admiration for the way in which Hithercroft had played.

Unfortunately, that was not the end of our problems on this day. On our drive home Des pulled up behind a driver who was waiting to turn right, Pam stopped her car behind him and the car behind Pam didn’t! Pam’s car was pushed into the back of Des’ causing damage to all three vehicles but fortunately there were no serious injuries to the occupants. As Pam’s car was not drive-able, having lost fluid from somewhere under the bonnet, Des made a couple of trips to get the boys home and then returned to await the breakdown service. We did not return home until 6pm. At the time of writing this report it is not known whether Pam’s car will be declared a "write-off" by the insurers.
This was truly a day when we should all have stayed in bed!


Hithercroft’s scorer: Dewayne Dublin.

Hithercroft’s MoM: All players gave of their best and it was considered unfair to select one player above any of the others on this occasion.