FOOTBALL: Pilot Flight
Lee Carey In as Hastings Manager, Star Players Out
HUGH SULLIVAN
Lee Carey featured prominently as a 19-year-old in the Hastings United promotion side of 2006/7 and captained the team in the FA cup run of 2012/13. He returned to the club’s Pilot Field headquarters to assist chairman Dean White in managing the team for the run-in last season and has now been appointed permanent men’s first team manager for next season.
Davide Rodari in action for Hastings, Adam Lovatt behind (both in claret and blue)
He will start, however, with a dearth of aces in his pack. Davide Rodari, Adam Lovatt and George Walker – in most supporters’ estimation the best three outfield players in the United team during the last campaign – have all departed after failing to agree terms of contract renewal.
It’s not surprising that a team that’s been relegated to a lower division should struggle to hang on to their better players. These three are, or should be, all at the peak of their physical potential as footballers. If they’re going to play at a higher level, this is the time to do it.
Rodari, born in Switzerland and now aged 25, once played youth football for Inter Milan. He joined Hastings United aged 17 and, after showing prodigious talent as a goal-scoring forward, was signed four years later by Crawley Town, then an EFL League Two side. He made 13 appearances for them in the season 2020-21. In subsequent seasons he was sent out on loan to a series of clubs before being released at the end of his two-and-a-half-year contract and returning to Hastings. Back at the Pilot Field, he netted 28 Isthmian League goals in 2023-24 and, despite the team’s overall poor attacking record and ultimate relegation, another 18 in 2024-25.
Could he have another stab at league football? He may be judged to lack either sufficient pace or physique for the EFL. But he’s certainly a more complete footballer than when he first went to Crawley: he has learnt to battle for openings as leader of an attacking line, and he still has a high rate of converting chances into goals – the most prized talent a footballer can offer. It would be surprising if his services are not bid for by a National League side.
Lovatt is older than Rodari by just a few weeks. Like him, he played as a teenager for Hastings United, in his case as a tenacious midfielder with plenty of stamina; and, at the age of 21, he too joined a side, Sutton United, which was promoted to League Two. Lovatt made a league appearance for them before being sent out on loan, but eventually found himself back at Hastings when his EFL contract was not renewed. Again, he may lack the pace or the passing ability required at that level but can expect good offers from clubs in the National League.
Walker was a youth player with Millwall and only released to play for Hastings in 2024-25, quickly becoming a crowd favourite as an enterprising full-back who was often the team’s best attacking outlet. At the age of 21, it’s unsurprising that he wants to better himself rather than dropping a division.
So, how will Hastings shape up under Carey without these talents? White issued a statement following the announcement of his appointment: “Lee was a breath of fresh air when he came in to work with the team for the final five games of the season and made a real impact with the players and the staff… Over the last seven or eight years we developed a successful football identity by giving hard-working young players and coaches a pathway and platform to perform and progress, and it was a culture that served us well. Unfortunately we managed to drift away from that environment in the last 12 months or so, and it’s important we get back to it as soon as possible.”
That seems to be a coded way of saying that Carey’s United team will return to a much greater reliance on youth players, whether promoted from the local academy or brought in from elsewhere – the Rodaris and Lovatts of the future. Here’s hoping they bring success.
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