Next up – Hitchin Town
Tuesday, 28th October at Wodson Park, SG12 0UQ.
Pitching in Southern League, Divison One (Central); kick off 7.45pm.
Admission
Admission (card preferred but cash accepted) – Adults £10, Concessions £5, under 14 free with paying adult otherwise £2.50.
Printed programme on the gate for £2.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at https://warefc.co.uk/product/ware-v-hitchin-town/
Our opponents
Our records are filled with a number of clubs that represented Hitchin through the nineteenth and early twentueth centuries. Hitchin Blue Cross, Union Jack and Athletic were among those but the most successful was just plain Hitchin. We won our first Herts Senior Cup against them in 1899 and had many tough and exciting games with them. Turning professional seemed to be their undoing however and they folded in 1911. The town of Hitchin was not apparently satisfied with their representation in the national sport being in the hands of Athletic and Blue Cross and the current Hitchin Town were formed in time for the 1928/9 season.
They rapidly became the main club in the town and have emphasised that with numerous appearances in the competition proper of the FA Cup and as 14 times winners of the senior cup. Despite the rise of near neighbours Stevenage they remain well supported and even though this is a midweek game on a likely cold night we can expect a larger than normal crowd.
Form guide
Hitchin currently lie fifth after a slowish start to their league campaign but seem to be gathering speed after becoming only the second team to take points off Leighton Town. They did however drop home points against a very defence minded Northwood on Saturday. Will we see a backlash from that in Tuesday’s more open game?
Ware are currently on a good run and unbeaten in seven successive games. We are without Jack Grosvenor for some time but coped well on Saturday against Leverstock Green. We also have David Sota almost ready for a start though I suspect the best he can hope for is to come off the bench in this game and that may depend on how the match is going. We will also see Ben Nightingale make his home debut after Saturday’s fine performance. He comes back to Ware on loan from Dagenham & Redbridge after Max Woodford was recalled by Stevenage. Max will be in the FA Youth Cup first round proper against Eastbourne Borough as we meet Hitchin and we wish him success.
Previous Meetings
Our first meeting was away in the Spartan League on 8th September 1928, presumably one of the new club’s first games. We lost 4-2 with G Parkin getting both our goals. I don’t know what happened to him after that but it was his one and only appearance for Ware. Hitchin meanwhile grew stronger and won the return fixture at Buryfield by 5-1 (S Pavitt for us). They went on to gain promotion to the Spartan Division One in second place behind Met Police whilst we were third but six points behind them.
The 31 fixtures since then have been mostly cup games with some friendlies thrown in. We’ve not done well, managing just two wins in friendlies and three competitive victories. One of those came in the East Anglian Cup at Top Field after two previous attempts at a third round tie had fallen first to a blizzard when we were 4-2 down, and then to fog at 3-0 down after 27 minutes. A 2-1 win at the third attempt must have been hard for Hitchin to swallow but it did us little good as we lost at St Neots in the next round.
Our most recent meeting came at the start of this season in the Herts Charity Cup. A scoreless draw saw us go out on penalties to the home side.
Commentary
Pete and Symon will be at the game if you can’t make it yourself. They’ll be broadcasting commentary from 7.40 at https://90minuteslivefootball.mixlr.com/events/4606535
Match officials
Our referee for this game is Fabio Roque, the assistant referees are Alan Steward and Jerahl Hall.
