Crusaders share the points with Canaries

Having dropped points recently despite being ahead at halftime, it was good to come back from a goal down at the interval to earn a draw against Hitchin which kept us in 9th. place, the Canaries being level on points and goal difference, but are above us in the table by virtue of scoring more goals. We are only 3 points behind leaders Chippenham, albeit having played two games more, and the top half of the table is still extremely tight.
The visitors came out strongly and had already gained a couple of corners when the ball was half-cleared to Tony McNamara who sent it looping back over Paul Strudley into the far corner after 2 minutes. Worse was to come, for Diak John, who was injured in the warm-up at Weymouth was deemed fit, but the gamble failed when he was forced off almost immediately and replaced by Dean Stow, whilst RhysTyler also needed a couple of bouts of treatment, but continued and saw out the 90 minutes. In the meantime, it was the visitors who were having the better of the play as we seemed unable to get our game together. Strudley fumbled a low shot, but recovered to save well and McNamara broke clear and it took a great block by Gary Horgan to stop the danger, whilst Charlie Horlock was seldom troubled in the Hitchin goal. Presumably roused by the half-time team talk we came out full of fight after the interval, and almost equalised when a free-kick from Matt Collins bobbled around in the penalty area before being cleared. We kept up the attack however and deservedly equalised in the 54th. minute, James Clark (pictured) firing home from out on the left and it suddenly looked a different game, although it needed two good saves from Strudley to save the day and another shot skimmed off the top of the bar. Near the end Harry Goodger headed on to Tyler but he shot wide, and we had to survive some late pressure to ensure a point.
Team; Strudley, Horgan, John( Stow ),Rusby, Day, Jones(Rees),Tyler, Collins, Jarvis, Draycott, Clark(Goodger). Subs;Brown, Passey.