Aylesbury made the short trip to Hitchin Town on the back of two massively disappointing defeats. Drew Roberts returned to the squad, making the bench having recovered from injury, and Greg Williams was back in the starting line-up.

Hitchin named ex-Ducks Richard Wilmot, Aaran Cavill and Josh Sozzo in their team, but none of them shone in an awful first half from the hosts point of view. Aylesbury took full advantage of the space on offer by their hosts, looking dangerous at every attack.

As early as the second minute it could have been 1-0. A long throw fell to Colin Baker, who laid the ball back for Williams to strike at goal, but the effort was held by Wilmot. Hitchin's Bilal Hassan should have done better with a headed effort which went wide, as should James Ayres who headed well off-target when free at a corner.

The first goal came about thanks to the quick-minded play of Paul Lamb. The midfielder delivered a quick free-kick into the box, which stuck in the mud, and Paul Edgeworth nipped in to shoot for goal. Wilmot did well to keep the effort out with his legs, but was powerless to stop Daniel French netting the rebound. 1-0 Aylesbury

An inadvertent touch by Daniel Mead almost lead to a Hitchin equaliser, as the ball found its way through to Hasan who lashed an effort wide. Mead was involved at the other end minutes later, flighting a ball which Edgeworth connected with at the far-post but couldn't beat Wilmot, who stood up strongly.

Aylesbury's second came again from a free-kick. After his first attempt rebounded off the wall, French picked out Danny Gray in the box, who laid the ball off for Liam Folds. Without hesitation the defender crashed home a splendid 20-yard piledriver. Wilmot got fingertips to the ball, but couldn't deny Folds his first United goal. 2-0 Aylesbury

The third goal came just before half-time, and against the run of play as the Canaries began to keep the ball for the first time of the game. Matt Hayward played an excellent pass to Gray, who slotted the ball through for Edgeworth to calmly fire into the net. 3-0 Aylesbury

Half-time: Hitchin 0-3 Aylesbury

Hitchin came out for the second half determined to make amends, and their forceful approach had United riled and they had to defend strongly. Josh Sozzo flashed a leff-footed effort wide, as the United defence backed off, and Jack Rashid reacted quickly to rush from his goal and smother Iuaen Lewis's shot.

Sozzo saw another effort deflected over by Hayward, and Rashid made another save before Hitchin's perseverance paid off with a goal. A break down the right caught Aylesbury short on numbers, and the ball was worked across to the unmarked Sozzo who couldn't miss. 3-1 Aylesbury

Rashid made two fantastic saves to keep Hitchin at bay as the home side turned up the heat. Cavill let fly on the volley, and Rashid superbly turned the ball round the post when he must have seen the ball late. He followed up by tipping Shane Hill's excellent curling free-kick over the bar.

As is so often the case with a team pushing forward late on, Hitchin were becoming vulnerable on the counter-attack, and who better to exploit such vulnerabilities as Drew Roberts? It was he who burst through onto a long pass, and although his shot was saved by Wilmot it still seemed to be trickling towards goal, but in the end went narrowly wide.

From the resulting corner Wilmot again performed heroics for his team, keeping out Dean Powles' strong header then two follow-up efforts.

The game was finally made safe for Aylesbury in the final minute. Roberts was again involved, as he raced away onto Lamb's pass, before unselfishly squaring for Edgeworth to easily score. 4-1 Aylesbury

There was still time for further incident in the final seconds, Sozzo reacting angrily to a tackle by Greg Williams which resulted in a melee. The referee, following consultations with his assistant, deemed it necessary to show a red card to James Ayres of Hitchin, and yellow cards to Aylesbury's Daniel Mead and Jack Rashid.

The final whistle was blown shortly afterwards, and in a game where Aylesbury finally managed to take their chances they were rewarded with the three points. But for great goalkeeping displays from both sides though, the scoreline could have been rather different.