A Hitch in Magpies’ plans (15.11.03)

IF THE Magpies miss out on a place in the restructured Conference by three points or less come the end of the season, Saturday’s defeat at Hitchin Town will top the list of matches under the heading: ‘The ones which got away’.
Against a team coming off the back of two heavy defeats at Hendon and Heybridge Swifts, and obviously lacking in confidence, the Magpies were crucially unable to make more of the possession they enjoyed and numerous goal scoring opportunites.
They also failed to get an even break from the man in black, although they were ultimately undone by two goals from indecisive defending and needlessly lost possession. Yet the contest had started so promisingly for the visitors. Inside the first minute a Brendon Gallen free-kick was inch-perfect for Andy Jennings but his unchallenged header from 10 yards missed the target.
Five minutes later Craig Farley whipped in an excellent cross to the edge of the six yard box for Phil Gray, but the striker was half a yard off the pace and could only glance the ball the wrong side of the upright.
When Farley blasted over the crossbar on 10 minutes, the Magpies must have thought it was just a matter of time before they scored.
But the rest of the half was poor fare from both sides and this was underlined when Lawrence Yaku rounded the Hitchin keeper only to side-foot the ball over the bar of an empty net. Fortunately his blushes were spared with an off-side flag.
The second period was certainly more lively, with a cup tie feel to proceedings, but this probably played into the hands of the home side who were more at home with a more direct style of play.
On 58 minutes, Jennings must have thought he had finally found the back of the net following a header from a Farley free-kick, but it was acrobatically saved. Six minutes later Hitchin were in front.
A cross from Wayne Mills picked out an unmarked Carl Drew who showed how to finish from close in.
Two minutes later the Magpies had a dead-cert penalty shout turned down, even though Luke Costello appeared to have his legs taken from under him. And there was even some debate about the original shot from Yaku before the ball fell to Costello, many fans believing it had crossed the goal-line.
Yet it was Hitchin who scored the crunch next goal, when Mills cut in from the right and dinked the ball over the prone Nick Hart and in off the bar.
Even in the last few minutes, Mark Boyce had a well struck shot saved by the keeper’s legs and Steve Hale spurned a one-on-one chance by placing his gilt-edged effort wide.
It was a nonsense result to cap a strange day, which ended with Hitchin’s beleaguered manager Robbie O’Keefe resigning.

MORE POWER TO YOUR ELBOW: Inspirational skipper Brian Connor gave it everything in both league and cup this week. Picture by John Ashby.