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Academy win ten goal thriller

BISHOP’S STORTFORD 6 HITCHIN TOWN 4
(THE NATIONAL LEAGUE UNDER 19 ALLIANCE – DIVISION C)
While Blues’ went out of the FA Youth Cup at Barnet on tuesday, the Academy side collected the points on Wednesday as they won a goal-fest against Hitchin Town.
There were no goals in the first twenty minutes before Dan Pinkney struck a free-kick that deflected high off the defensive wall and was dropped by keeper Sam Simpson for Harry Senior to net from point-blank range
There was a goalkeeping error at the other end five minutes later when Blues keeper Archie Lambert sliced a back pass to the visitors’ Masud Ahmed who scored.
Within three minutes Stortford were back in front with Sami Shulton’s glancing header from Oliver Travell’s left wing cross going past Simpson.
In the 32nd minute Louie Johnson fastened on to a loose ball just inside the box and powered a fine shot into the net to make it 3-1.
The first half scoring was completed in the 39th minute when a long ball down the right flank from Charlie Riley found Shulton who benefited from Simpson’s hesitation to send an angled effort wide of the stopper.
Stortford’s lead was further extended four minutes after the restart when Johnson put Senior through on the left side of the box and he scored his second goal of the afternoon from an acute angle.
Lambert had to make saves from the visitors’ Jordan Webber and Reuban Kester before, in the 53rd minutes, Gabriel Andrews broke down the middle to pull a goal back and score the first goal of his hat-trick.
In the 71st minute substitute Hampton fastened on to a poor back pass to shoot low into the net to make I 6-2 but then Andrews headed in from close range in the 75th minute as the Blues defence started to look very shaky 6-3.
Shulton was close to notching a hat-trick of his own but from Kester’s free-kick Andrews was allowed to run in the Canaries’ fourth goal with five minutes left.
BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Archie Lambert; Charlie Riley (Harry Bannister 82); Jack Johnson; James Sacre; Matthew Wood; Jamie Riley; Oliver Travell (Dan Hampton 63); Daniel Pinkney (Mason Carlier 79); Sami Shulton; Harry Senior; Louie Johnson (Pedro Gomes 63).
Unused substitute: Olly Miles