FOOTBALL: Long odds against play-off qualification
Potters Bar Town 1,
Hastings United 4
Hastings United 0,
Horsham 0
Hastings United 3,
Bognor Regis 2
HUGH SULLIVAN
The ‘U’s ended a run of four consecutive home draws last Saturday when they defeated Bognor Regis 3-2 at Pilot Field. In doing so, they kept their prospects of a top-five league finish and promotion play-off place still mathematically alive. However, Cray Wanderers’ 2-0 victory over Kingstonian on the same day kept the Kent side six points clear with a comfortably superior goal difference. Even if Hastings (who have a game in hand) were to finish the season’s fixtures with two victories of their own –at home to Billericay on Tuesday of this week and at Bowers & Pitsea tomorrow (Saturday) – and Cray were lose their final fixture away at Haringey, there would also have to be a swing in goal difference of 12 goals over the three games for the teams to switch positions. At the time of going to press, the odds against such an outcome look remote; after Tuesday’s match they may already have been extinguished.
Cray have come into form at the right time – or the wrong time for Hastings – with seven wins and a draw in their eight games since the beginning of March, including five-goal hauls against Potters Bar, Horsham and Herne Bay. Hastings have only suffered a single defeat in the same period (away at Canvey Island, in a game where they held the lead for quite a time). But those four draws have cost them precious points that can’t be retrieved now.
The game against Horsham on Easter Monday was perhaps typical. The ‘U’s had defeated their West Sussex opponents 4-1 less than two weeks before in a Sussex Senior Cup tie with a hat-trick from teenage loanee striker Joe Gbode. They had also hit four goals at Potters Bar on the Saturday before. A holiday crowd of over 1,500 came to the league re-match at the Pilot Field hoping for a similar goal spree. But Gbode was closely marked throughout, the visitors crowded the midfield and, despite valiant efforts throughout the team, Hastings could not force any clear opportunities. Horsham went close themselves on a few occasions, and it could not be said that the eventual 0-0 draw flattered them.
Against Bognor Regis the ‘U’s hit their stride rapidly, with a goal scored by Freddie Legg – man-of-the-match for the second time in five days – followed by two from David Smith within the first half hour. If that suggested an opportunity to narrow the goal difference with Cray, Bognor had other ideas, getting one goal back before halftime and another ten minutes from the end to set up a tense finish. Hastings celebrated their 3-2 victory but knew quickly that it was unlikely to prove enough.
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