Hitchin Town 4-1 Rebels

[Ian]

So that's that for another season as we were comprehensively beaten by Hitchin albeit the scoreline doesn't tell the whole story.

 

The game hinged on three incidents in my mind. After Danny Burnell had pressurised the Hitchin number 3 into giving us a goal the home side drew level right on half time when they were awarded a dubious penalty. The referee had already waved away the penalty claims in a quite animated way from his viewpoint 5 yeards away but chose instead to take the opinion of his assistant who was at least 20 yards away and award the penalty anyway. A ludicrous decision.

 

The second incident was just after half time when Bullivant inexplicably decided to throw the ball out quckly (we were drawing at that time and didn't need to speed the game up) but only succeeded in throwing it straight to a Hitchin player who took a couple of paces and fired it past him into the corner. A thoroughly avoidable goal.

 

Even when we went 3-1 down there's was always a hope and that chance came when Ben Abbey went to nod in at the far post but had the ball cleared off his forhead by a Hitchin defender's boot. The clearest penalty you could ever wish to see. The studs were pretty much in hisface yet the referee ignored it and the assistant, who had 20/20 vision from that distance in the first half, ignored it too. The referee even allowed the game to carry on despite the head injury to Ben. A laughably bad decision all round and game over at that point.

 

It was always going to be a tough ask to beat them at their place again and we needed a few things to go for us but with that referee it was never going to happen.

Edited April 28, 2011 by Ian

[Chris]

Felt we lost our heads a bit after the penalty award, and when it went 2-1 were left chasing the game. Spoke to some people who said it was and others who disagreed, but that's football I guess.

 

Thought we played well first-half, but second-half was all Hitchin and they deserved their win in the end in my opinion. Would have been interesting if Sonner's goal had counted as that would have made it 3-2.

 

Beginning to not like this play-off stuff :-(

[Tom]

Congrats to Hitchin, they were the better side and showed their quality in the second half. At the end of the day the table doesn't lie and they finished 2nd and deserve the chance of going up.

 

I'm not going to dwell on the ludicrous decisions made by the referee as it won't change anything - we know the standard of refereeing at this level so would just be going over old ground.

 

What's important now is what happens over the close season. One of the key differences between Hitchin and Slough tonight was the togetherness of the squad. 7 or 8 of their starting 11 started last seasons semi-final, where as we had just 2. I hope Bateman and Anderson don't have to do any major rebuilding over the summer, although there will be departures I hope they can build on this seasons squad with 2 or 3 quality additions that can move us forward rather than having to take steps backwards again.

 

Regardless of tonight's result we have had another positive season and two seasons finishing in the play-offs is no mean feat.

[Chris]

What's important now is what happens over the close season. One of the key differences between Hitchin and Slough tonight was the togetherness of the squad. 7 or 8 of their starting 11 started last seasons semi-final, where as we had just 2. I hope Bateman and Anderson don't have to do any major rebuilding over the summer, although there will be departures I hope they can build on this seasons squad with 2 or 3 quality additions that can move us forward rather than having to take steps backwards again.

 

Yep, Sonner and Seeby the only ones from last season who started that game. Key players missing also did not help as well having the whole of our right side missing in Sweens and Sincs, plus only having Adam Martin for only ten minutes of football this season is a real shame as we know what a class act he is, plus Shaun Byrne being missing as he was playing well before his injury.

[Anglepen]

Copying this from a previous thread as more appropriate here.

 

Bad luck tonight guys, you played a tough game and we cancelled each other out for long periods, our penalty certainly wasn't a penalty in my eyes, but at this stage I think you'll agree you'll take anything that comes along. I do feel the change was the way your players reacted and got affected over the penalty, I think it affected their game plan and they lost shape pretty badly and allowed us to play our game, which at home is deadly.

 

Lots of commiseration from our side of the pitch at the end as we know exactly how you feel, and its not over for us yet either, Daventry are a tough team to beat.

 

Great vocal crowd you brought tonight too singing to the very end, something we still can't seem to muster for very long. And some very nice and encouraging support from you guys as we all left, much appreciated.

 

You'll get our full support next season whatever happens to us on Monday I can assure you and wish you all the very best

 

ps, speaking of injuries we also had a weakened side, Tom Pepper who is a god on the left is out on a long term injury, and old man Smudger Smith in defence who has played against the best the premier had to offer in his time is on his honeymoon, Jamie Arlick is still not 100% match fit either.

Edited April 28, 2011 by Anglepen

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Gutted, but Hitchin showed they were the better of the two teams in the second half. Who knows what would have happened if we had held them off at 1-0 until half time. Penalty was very debateable, how the ref decided that the linesman had a better view we will never know, and he and his assistants followed it up with many more rubbish calls through the rest of the game.

First half we matched them and had good spells of possession, working hard to get our goal. Second half we were always under pressure but tried hard to get a couple of chances. Good luck to Hitchin on Monday, hopefully they can get out of this league so we can challenge for the title.

Unlucky Rebels, it has been another good season, hopefully we can keep pushing the top end of the league next year. Consistency is the main thing, so we need to hold onto the bulk of the squad and the management - Sonner has already said on Twitter tonight that he is not leaving, which is good!

Bring on next season!

[canarie lad]

Give yourselves a pat on the back tonight your supporters are a credit to your club, not many would applaud the oppositions players after losing 4-1 in a semi final playoff. Good luck for next year i just hope we finish the job on monday, if we dont then at least i will have the pleasure of drinking with some real supporters at the white horse next year .

[3spirit]

So disappointed with our 2nd half display,especially given the fact that we were the better team in the 1st half. The very dubious penalty knocked us back,just before half-time but we should have still been chomping at the bit for the 2nd half. Bullivant cocked up big time with that frankly daft throw and was made to pay by that piledriver of a shot.

Real shame we didn't roll up our sleeves and have a go again.Third goal killed us.Saddened by the indiscipline some players showed leading to needless bookings.This is something we must address for next year,as all this does is disrupts our team morale and our togetherness and our urgency of play,but it's no good moaning too much now,as what is done is done.When the dust has settled we need to re-focus and re-group and start to plan for next season.

 

Good luck to Hitchin,though.Hope they beat Daventry in the final.Let's hope it's third time lucky for us next year ! Back to the drawing board,Steve and Dave!

 

 

[staines_rebel_Jr]

It is good for once to see two sets of fans who have respect for one another. Last year you wished us the best of luck and didnt complain too much about the probable penalty you should have had. This year we wish yourselves well in the final against daventry and we will try not to make a huge fuss about the penalty which sounds like it was very soft, I personally had a poor veiw of the "foul" so can't comment as to wether it was or not.

 

There may be a few of us going to the final to support you and hopefully see you get the promotion into the premiere division which you deserve.

 

 

 

 

Also if Sonner does stay for another season that would be absolutely fantastic.

[thecoldend]

Here are some match highlights I filmed... shows the "penalty" decision clearly.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFv-qHTB9w4

[Anglepen]

To be truthful, having seen your video the penalty looks a little stronger than I initially thought, your guy clearly looks back and checks him, granted our guy goes down like a ton of bricks but any forward would. He did knock the ball long and I think he possibly had the foul in mind as support was not there, but if your defender had just run for the ball and not looked back and checked (which maybe the lino saw) then it would have come to nowt.

 

Anyway its all in the past now, decisions come and go and its cruel when it goes against you when it matters, as we found out last year, we unfortunately have low grade officials at this level but I'm sure they do their best.

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Having looked at the video (btw thank you very much for posting it and so quickly) to me it seems as though Murphy is trying to get out of the way and the hitchin player runs towards him, away from the ball looking for contact to go down. Maybe I have a biased veiw but thats what it seems like to me.

[Anglepen]

You could be right, its a biased view my side too, it s difficult to say if he's moving to the left or not.

 

But its swings and roundabouts, last year we missed out, this year you lost out, thats the nature of football at this level

[Edinburgh Rebel]

Looks to me like the Hitchin player purposely ran into him to get a penalty.

[BFR]

I didn't have a great view of the penalty incident, and I'm not totally convinced by the replay, but it clearly had a big impact on our team at half time and there was only one team in the second half that looked like they were going to win. While the referee did not cover himself in glory throughout the game, he did not put the ball in our net 4 times, and the Hitchin keeper was not called into action on too many occasions.

 

Well done to Hitchin, please don't screw things up on Saturday against Daventry. It'll be tough next year with St Neots in this division, and I'd rather not have Hitchin in the promotion chase too.

 

To our players, well done for the season. It wasn't always pretty but you got us into the playoffs again and up until the 45th minute last night I was confident of reaching the final. I hope the majority of you will stick around for next season and will not forget the disappointment of this match during the summer so that you come out firing in August aiming for the title.

 

Up the rebels.

Edited April 29, 2011 by BFR

[readingrebel]

We will never know what would have happened if the the dubious penalty hadn't been given and Bully hadn't made his [****!!****]-up but we lost 4-1 and over the course of the season Hitchin deserve it so well done to them and hopefully they go on to get the promotion they deserve.

 

Well done to the players and management for all their efforts in providing us with another exciting season.

 

Could it be written that we get promotion the season before we move into our new ground?

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

The better side won, and Hitchin have now come second in the leauge in two seasons and that shows they are ready to take the step up.

 

There were few in our side last night who could say they had a good 90 mins, most only played one half, but a couple had howlers.

 

Slough now need to have a good hard look at themselves, and honestly investigate and purge the weeknesses in the squad and the management of the team.

[readingrebel]

The better side won, and Hitchin have now come second in the leauge in two seasons and that shows they are ready to take the step up.

 

There were few in our side last night who could say they had a good 90 mins, most only played one half, but a couple had howlers.

 

Slough now need to have a good hard look at themselves, and honestly investigate and purge the weeknesses in the squad and the management of the team.

 

 

Without any playings leaving, to have a chance of winning the league next season I think we need to strenthen the team with at least 3 or 4 players.

 

Rumours abound that we will not have Chris Seeby (going abroad for a couple of seasons) and Simon Sweeney who is contemplating retirement due to work commitments.

 

Adding in the possibility of other players who might leave it could be unfortunately another mini rebuilding job for SB.

[3spirit]

The better side won, and Hitchin have now come second in the leauge in two seasons and that shows they are ready to take the step up.

 

There were few in our side last night who could say they had a good 90 mins, most only played one half, but a couple had howlers.

 

Slough now need to have a good hard look at themselves, and honestly investigate and purge the weeknesses in the squad and the management of the team.

 

 

Without any playings leaving, to have a chance of winning the league next season I think we need to strenthen the team with at least 3 or 4 players.

 

Rumours abound that we will not have Chris Seeby (going abroad for a couple of seasons) and Simon Sweeney who is contemplating retirement due to work commitments.

 

Adding in the possibility of other players who might leave it could be unfortunately another mini rebuilding job for SB.

 

 

If that's true,Reading Rebel,that's our two best players leaving.Chris Seeby is my player of this season,as was Simon Sweeney last year. I hope it doesn't come to fruition.They will be a huge loss.

[Mark44]

Just watched the clip....

 

Never a pen imo. Murphy tried to get out of the bloody way.

 

 

Its just a shame that the ref had such an impact on the game. I would mind losing to Hitchin as I think they are a decent club and wanted to see a good game between the two but the ref ruined it.

 

Take nothing away from Hitchin though, they have been consitently good for most of the season and I wish them all the very best of luck in the final.

 

Let them go up! lets get rid of them lol