Hithercroft Football Club
The Pedestal
Bradenham Road (A4010)
High Wycombe
Bucks
HP12 4AL Map

John Lewis friendly (19/03/2006)
2005 - 2006 Season, Hithercroft Youth



This was a friendly match against a John Lewis Partnership team and took place in the early evening under floodlights on the Astroturf at the High Wycombe Sports Centre. The weather was dry but very cold, the referee was Mr Kenroy Charles and Pam Ife ran the line for Hithercroft.

The game got under way at 6.10pm and Hithercroft went straight onto the offensive. They took the ball down the middle, played it out to Baz David and, as the keeper came forward, Baz headed the ball inside from where Tyrone Francis headed the ball on into the net, putting Hithercroft 1-0 ahead after just 38 seconds. Three minutes into the game the John Lewis keeper was put under further pressure; Baz tried a shot that had the keeper diving to block I and the ball then fell to Paul Morgan who headed it back towards the goal forcing another diving save from the keeper. In the 16th minute Tyrone went down the left and crossed the ball inside to Paul. Paul then pushed it forward to Loz Dunn who lifted the ball over the keeper but it came down on top of the bar. The single goal was all that separated the two teams at the end of the 25-minute half.

Two minutes into the second half Hithercroft sent the ball into the middle where Baz collected it, took it forward, lifted it over the keeper’s head and went round him to deposit it into the John Lewis’ net. Further scoring opportunities began to arise for Hithercroft, Paul sending the ball wide in the 35th minute and then David Blackman putting the ball outside the left-hand post. Hithercroft made some positional changes, moving both David and Alan McKie forward with Baz and Paul dropping back and, in the 37th minute John Lewis used their sub. Two minutes later Dewayne Dublin took the ball down the left, turned inside and went past two defenders before being brought down inside the 18-yard box. Matt Hedges, the Hithercroft keeper, came up to take the resulting penalty and made no mistake with his shot giving Hithercroft a 3-0 lead. Two minutes later Hithercroft almost increased this lead when Tyrone played the ball out wide to Alan on the right and Alan tried a very high shot that came down onto the crossbar. In the 43rd minute the John Lewis No.3 went down the middle, sent the ball out to his left and the No.12 hit an angled shot that had Matt Hedges diving to push the ball clear. One minute later the John Lewis side had a great opportunity to get on the score sheet when their No.12 hit a shot from just 6-yards out but Matt cleared the shot with his foot. On 45 minutes Mr Charles brought this short match to an end with Hithercroft having kept a clean sheet and emerging as 3-0 winners.