Downley Albion Under 16s - Friendly (07/09/2003)
2003 - 2004 Season, Hithercroft Youth



This was our final friendly before the first game of the new season and it turned out to be our worst performance so far. Local Parish Council regulations meant that the game had to start before midday and, because of some players and officials arriving at the meeting point late, we only just arrived at the ground in time. This gave us no time to warm up properly. The pitch was quite large and the surface was hard as there had been little rain recently. The weather was sunny but rather cool. Our opponents had been first division champions for some years and so were having difficulty in arranging friendly matches against teams in their age group as they always seemed to win.

The game kicked off at 11.57am with Stevie and Anthony being absent and our substitutes were Shahid, Kevin, Richard McBarnett, and Jamaine. Within a minute of the start Downley had taken the lead when they took the ball down the centre and, as Simon came forward, they put the ball past him into the net. After the initial upset Hithercroft had some good possession but their finishing was rather poor. Chris Paget tried a long high shot that came down just over the Downley crossbar, Dewayne Dublin had a shot but hit it straight at the goalkeeper and then Arron Clarke sent his shot wide of the upright. The referee, on a couple of occasions spoke to Chris about his play and conduct, the second time calling Pam on to inform her that Chris had received his last warning and would be sent off should he re-offend. Pam then brought Chris off to give him time to calm down and sent Kevin on. After 25 minutes Arron had to come off with an injured ankle and Shahid was sent on. In the 37th minute Downley increased their lead when the ball was tapped back into the goal following an attempted Hithercroft clearance. Three minutes later Downley added a third goal to their collection when the ball came off Simon, the Hithercroft keeper, and ended up in the visitor’s net making the score 3-0 at half-time.

The second half kicked off at 12.42pm, Kevin and Shahid having returned to ‘the bench’ and Chris and Arron returning to the field of play. However, it wasn’t long before Chris had to leave the field again, this time for treatment following a collision with a Downley player and so Hithercroft were temporarily reduced to 10 men until Richard McBarnett came on to replace him after 5 minutes. Hithercroft were awarded a couple of free-kicks and corners but were unable to gain any advantage from them. Then Dewayne took the ball down the right and passed it across to Arron who advanced on the goal before delivering the ball forward to Ralph Kheir. Ralph made no mistake and put the ball into the Downley net for Hithercroft’s opening goal after 20 minutes of the half. Four minutes later Chris came back on and so Richard returned to the subs ‘bench’. Five minutes later Duane White was sent off by the referee following a deliberate foul on one of our opponents and so Hithercroft had to play out the rest of the game with just 10 men. Some of the visiting players were becoming frustrated with their performance and some bad language was being used. At 1.15pm Downley brought the score to 4-1 when they took the ball down the wing and crossed it into the centre for an attacker to slot the ball home with the Hithercroft defenders making little attempt to prevent this. In the 35th minute of the half Matt Seaton got onto the end of a cross from the right and hammered the ball into the net to reduce the deficit to 2 goals. He was also involved just one minute later when he sent the ball into the goal area for Ralph to score his second goal of the match to bring Hithercroft to just one goal in arrears. The 10-man team had ‘upped’ their game but their finishing an some occasions left something to be desired with shots being off-target or straight at the keeper. Downley should have increased their tally when one of their players found himself with the ball and an open goal just 5 yards ahead but he hit the ball over the crossbar. When the final whistle was blown the home team were the victors by 4 goals to 3 and Hithercroft will have to sort themselves out if they are to have any realistic chance of winning promotion by the end of the season.


Hithercroft scorers:- Ralph (2) and Matt