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| Cressex
Club Res (19/02/2006) 2005 - 2006 Season, Hithercroft Youth  Hithercroft‘s penultimate league game of the season was against their only rivals for the championship and it was vital that they take all three points from this game, given that Cressex have a number of games in-hand. However, a draw would be sufficient to guarantee promotion for next season. The weather remained dry throughout the game but the sky was overcast and there was a very cold wind blowing on the Cressex school pitch, which was in quite good condition. The referee was Mr Kieran Bailey and Pat Vaughey ran the line for Hithercroft. Leon returned from a long absence caused through injury and Eugene Hepburn came along, also after a long absence, to join the Hithercroft subs.. The game kicked off promptly at 10.30am with Hithercroft playing against the wind during the first half. Five minutes into the game Cressex broke down the middle and their No.7 hit a shot that had Matt Hedges diving to push the ball round the outside of the post. Throughout this half Hithercroft were playing high balls forward but the Cressex defence were getting their heads to the ball first to clear the danger whilst Cressex were keeping the ball down but were unable to penetrate their visitor’s defences. On the 35th minute Hithercroft’s Loz Dunn played the ball down the right wing to Paul Morgan who turned in and let fly from the edge of the 18-yard box but sent the ball just wide of the right-hand post. By the half time interval neither side had managed to put the ball into their opponent’s net. For the second half, which began at 11.21am, Hithercroft had the wind in their favour but the light began to fade as the cloud thickened. After 6 minutes of the second half Cressex opened the scoring when their No.5 collected the ball on the right and hit an angled shot into the Hithercroft net. Four minutes later Hithercroft hit back when David Blackman sent a long high ball down the middle and Baz David headed the ball over the Cressex keeper to level the score to 1-1. In the 56th minute Cressex were awarded a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box and their No.3 blasted the ball against the crossbar. Three minutes later Hithercroft made their only substitution of the match, sending on Eugene to replace Paul. In the 65th minute Hithercroft almost took the lead when Baz went down the middle of the field and struck a shot that went over the Cressex keeper‘s head, hit the crossbar and bounced out behind the startled keeper. Hithercroft had begun to show a more determined attitude and were passing the ball around in a more controlled manner than they had been doing earlier. On 75 minutes Tyrone Francis sent the ball to Leon, he headed the ball on to Matt Seaton but Matt’s overhead shot went just outside of the left-hand post. In the 80th minute Alan McKie brought the ball down the right, sent it forward to Baz who crossed it in to Eugene. Eugene pushed the ball across to Matt Seaton who struck a superb diagonal shot into the top of the Cressex net to put Hithercroft into a 2-1 lead. Two minutes of stoppage time were played but no further goal were scored, in spite of Cressex upping the pressure, and so Hithercroft secured promotion and kept their hopes on winning the division alive. Hithercroft scorers: Baz David (55m) and Matt Seaton (80m) Hithercroft M.o.M: Alan McKie Hithercroft team: Matt Hedges (GK), Peter Morgan, Alan McKie, David Blackman, Dan Birch, Loz Dunn, Leon Read, Paul Morgan, Matt Seaton, Tyrone Francis and Baz David. Hithercroft sub: Eugene Hepburn Hithercroft unused subs: Jamaine Warner and Dewayne Dublin. |
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