Football: Play-off hopes slipping away
Canvey Island 3, Hastings United 1
Hastings United 3, Herne Bay 3
HUGH SULLIVAN
Four Saturdays ago Hastings United’s late goals at Bishops Stortford sealed a 3-2 win which seemed to set them up perfectly for the league run in. Two weeks later, at 4.15pm on Saturday 25 March, things looked even better. Playing away to Canvey Island, rival challengers for a play-off position, the ‘U’s led 1-0 with a close-range goal from Craig Stone; David Smith had rattled a post; Joe Gbode missed a good chance. “We were in total control”, manager Gary Elphick said.
But they lost it in a series of uncharacteristic defensive errors, leaking three second-half goals in a 25-minute spell, to find themselves 3-1 down, and out of contention. That’s football. Instead of narrowing the points gap by three, they had seen it widen by three, at the wrong end of the classic ‘six-pointer’.
Last Saturday, hosting Herne Bay in heavy conditions at the Pilot Field, there were similar swings of fortune. Gbode and Stone put Hastings 2-0 up after 21 minutes but, over a ruinous quarter of an hour before half time, they conceded three goals themselves to turn round 3-2 down. Captain Jack Dixon scored an equaliser midway through the second half, but without Ben Pope (suspended) and Jack Elliott, they couldn’t find a winner.
Although there are still five league games to play, including a brace over the holiday weekend – away to Potters Bar tomorrow (Saturday), then home to Horsham on Easter Monday – play-off prospects must now be regarded as remote.
Would Elphick have settled for ninth place (their current position out of 22) at the beginning of the campaign? Perhaps not – he and the board who appointed him are competitive people who strive for the best possible outcome. But given the loss of key midfielders, Tom Chalmers and Sam Hasler, for the whole of the second half of the season through serious injury, they have performed admirably overall. Notwithstanding recent frailties, the defence – Stone and Alex Brefo in the centre, Elliott and Kane Penn at full back, and Louis Rogers in goal – has been generally consistent and often outstanding. And it has been fun to watch Gillingham loanee Joe Gbode, surely a major talent of the future, start his professional career banging in goals for Hastings at this level.
On any reasonable view the ‘U’s have enjoyed a good season following their promotion last April, consolidating their status and giving their supporters plenty to cheer. Elphick will surely keep them motivated to go on doing so over the final fortnight.
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