Alternative Report v Spalding

[Greenfinch]

I flew in on a South Westerly, changing course slightly to hover over St Mark's Church, hoping for some divine intervention to get our first home win,but it wasn't required,as our boys were magnificent.Top field looked superb as I swooped in to land, congratulations to Steve and his team for their effort after all the recent rainfall.
Hitchin were up for this match,and so were Spalding,Brett was right when he said they were in a false league position,as they were as good as any team we have played so far.I would say, they had the majority of the play in the first 15mins,with their tall centre forward,( who could probably have an eye to eye conversation with a camel)But after that we settled down and scored a superb goal,with a hooked Stokoe shot just outside the box, that rifled into the top corner.From then on it was frantic,the goal had rattled the visitors,and they fought for every ball with vigour, pushing, shoving,kicking,and fouling. Not that Hitchin didn't do the same, its just Brett has installed in his teams to do it better,we are not the soft touch anymore.After Spalding equalised, we regained the lead with a great penalty under the cicumstances,and against their imposing keeper whom we all know so well.
The final 10mins was agony, come on Hitchin,it was feverish,but the final whistle went,the fans behind the goal went crazy,and the players came to applause,it was a great feeling, they had fought with total commitment, and of course we were proud fans.

[Brian]

Chris N would call it 'Win Ugly'.

It was scrappy, hard fought, not a lot of quality football but it was 3 points and rightly celebrated like we had one a cup.

Spalding were tough, uncomprimising and although all the Hitchin bookings were correct decisions, the ref seemed to allow Spalding plenty of licence. LB was regularly fouled in the air when jumping for headers and how the player got away uncautioned after wrestling Connor Roberts to the ground by the throat when they jumped for a header I'm not sure. The lino actually gave the foul for the challenge after the ref waved play on. At least he gave the penalty.

Stokoe's goal was a peach. He nearly had a second but for a brilliant save by the Breedon. Big shout out to our young keeper who did everything asked of him and handled confidently.

Well done to Callum Ellis, mascots, their families and coaches. makes such a great atmosphere having the kids involved and I'm sure the players love it when they are asked for autographs and selfies when leaving the pitch.

What a great turn out. I know it was international weekend but 719 attendance was brilliant and it made such a great atmosphere.

Hopefully that support will encourage the players to what more and build on yesterdays win.

The two upcoming home games could in theory see us move out of the relegation zone if we could get a couple of good results.

[Jon Barnes]

..... "all the Hitchin bookings were correct decisions"
Its a shame the same criteria never seem to be applied to the opposition.