Hitchin Town v Needham Market 16.10.2021

Season: 2021-22. Game: 56.
Date & KO: Saturday 16 October 2021, 3pm.
Fixture: Hitchin Town v Needham Market.
Venue: Top Field, Hitchin.
Competition: The Pitching-In Southern League Premier Division Central.

Post Match Reaction:

Byron Lawrence:

Kevin Horlock:

Match Footage:

Needham Market pick up their first league win of the season with a clinical 6-1 away win at Hitchin Town.

The result sees Kevin Horlock's men leapfrog Hitchin and move up to 18th place in the table, following an unbeaten run of 5 league draws. Horlock made two changes to last Saturday's home draw with Redditch as Daniel Morphew was replaced by captain Keiran Morphew and Emmanuel Machaya dropped to the bench for Jose Santa.

The afternoon got off to the perfect start from the Reds' perspective as Man Of The Match Byron Lawrence broke the deadlock in the fifth minute. The midfielder was found by Noah Collard in space outside the box, where he blasted home a powerful drive into the top left-hand corner, 1-0 Needham. 

The goalscorer was then denied in the 24th minute as Lawrence's brilliant curled free-kick towards the top far corner was well held by Charlie Horlock in the Hitchin goall. 

And the Canaries' stopper thwarted the Marketmen once more on the half-hour mark, after Jose Santa dispossessed the defender just outside the home side's box, the forward poked it onto Ben Fowkes who drove through into the box only to his good low shot towards the far corner palmed away by Horlock, though nobody in Red was around to pounce on the loose ball.

But three minutes later, Needham did double their lead courtesy of another well worked goal. Kyle Hammond threaded a great ball over the top perfect for Callum Page running through the defence inside the box to latch onto and sweep past the onrushing Horlock low into the net. 

Another good save from Horlock prevented Needham from adding a third goal in the 40th minute, the stopper this time smothering Luke Ingram's low shot from inside the box behind at his near post. 

However, Hitchin halved the deficit down to one a minute into stoppage time as a cross back in following a corner was headed back across the face of goal by Lewis Barker finding captain Dan Webb free from point blank range to head home.

Needham on the other hand restored their two goal advantage in the fourth minute of first half stoppage time, Byron Lawrence again with a stunning strike for his second of the afternoon - this time firing home a beautiful low free-kick, from the edge of the box, which went through the wall and into the bottom near corner, 3-1 Needham. 

Had it not been for the efforts of goalkeeper Charlie Horlock, it could've been even worse for the home side - with the aforementioned stopper smothering Ben Fowkes' first time shot from close range three minutes after the restart. 

It was 4-1 to the Suffolk side after 64 minutes, courtesy of some clever link up play between two former Academy graduates. Noah Collard threaded a great ball through the defence to Callum Page, who did well to evade the defender's last ditch sliding challenge as he drove on into the box to sidefoot his second goal of the afternoon past Horlock and into the bottom near corner. 

At which point Hitchin were resigned to damage limitation, albeit they were unable to prevent Byron Lawrence from sealing his hat-trick on the 72nd minute. After a foul on Luke Ingram inside the box, the midfielder sent Horlock the wrong way, as he blasted home the spot-kick into the bottom right-hand corner, 5-1 Needham.

Five minutes later, the woodwork denied Ben Fowkes from adding his name to the score-sheet. The forward's beautiful low curling strike from the left wing-edge of the box looked like nestling into the bottom far corner had it not crashed back into play off the inside of the post.

Debutant Hans Mpongo, who had only been on the pitch 6 minutes nearly got in on the act, the Dutch-born forward was threaded through on goal, drawing Horlock off his line only to see his shot go agonisingly just wide of the bottom far corner.

 

But four minutes from full-time, he did pick up an assist as Mpongo threaded Ben Fowkes through free inside the box, who then beared down on goal before cooly placing it past Horlock into the bottom left-hand corner to complete the scoring. 

Needham will look to build on the result on Tuesday when the welcome Biggleswade Town to Bloomfields, which will reunite them with ex-Marketmen trio Sam Squire, Joe Neal and Russell Short. 

Hitchin Town:-

1 Charles Horlock (GK)

2 Lawrie Marsh

3 Alex Brown

4 Ryan Smith (34' Akubuine)

5 Daniel Webb (C)

6 Ciaren Jones

7 Lewis Barker

8 Joshua Coldicott-Stevens (73' Snee)

9 Rio Dasilva

10 Luke Brown

11 Kye Tearle (57' Moloney)

Subs:

12 Daniel Akubuine

14 Henry Snee

15 Malaki Black

16 Matthew Moloney

17 Stanley Georgiou

Needham Market:-

1 Marcus Garnham (GK)

2 Kyle Hammond

3 Jake Dye

4 Byron Lawrence

5 Keiran Morphew (C) (74' Sturgess)

6 Hugh Cullum

7 Callum Page

8 Noah Collard

9 Luke Ingram (75' Mpongo)

10 Jose Santa De La Paz (56' Fitzgerald)

11 Ben Fowkes

Subs:

12 Callum Sturgess

14 Thomas Fitzgerald

15 Emmanuel Machaya

16 Hans Mpongo

17 Taylor Clark

Booked: Smith (16'), Brown (45+3'), Fitzgerald (82').

Goals: Webb (45'+3'); Lawrence (5', 45'+4', 72'pen), Page (33', 64'), Fowkes (86').