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An enterprising and skilful Baldock team mastered the tricky conditions to run out comfortable winners, ending the Hurricanes’ three-match winning run.
The constraints of school fairs and birthday parties (Sir Alex and Big Phil never have to cope with this!) dictated a slight imbalance between defence and attack and the Hurricanes struggled to get bodies forward and put any pressure on their opponents. In a torrid first half, they were also playing uphill into a headwind so the outlook was not promising. The defence coped quite comfortably with some skilful and tricky Baldock forwards in open play. Unfortunately, some naiveté at corners, free kicks and goal kicks gifted Baldock some gilt-edged chances and all three first half goals resulted from these kind of set-pieces. William, Kane and Ryan, as ever, ran their hearts out but often, they were breaking from too deep to trouble Baldock’s defence.
Hitchin used the slope to their advantage in the second half and it was much more even. Ryan nearly pulled a goal back when he hit the post after connecting with a Kane free kick. Baldock remained a threat at set pieces and a long-range free kick whizzed past Sam to make it 4-0. Overall, Baldock played very well but great credit to the boys for coming back strongly after a difficult first half.
Team: Sam Hen, Patrick, Kai, Stephen, Ryan, Kane, William
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