FOOTBALL: Pointless January Confirms Relegation Threat
19 January: Hastings Utd 1, Cray Wanderers 2
22 January: Hastings Utd 1, Binfield 2
26 January: Chatham Town v Hastings Utd – match abandoned
28 January: Carshalton Athletic 2, Hastings Utd 1
HUGH SULLIVAN
Some things are more important than football. The match between Chatham Town and Hastings United at the home side’s Bauvill Stadium last Saturday was abandoned after half an hour when a ‘U’s travelling supporter sitting in the stand collapsed, needed immediate life support, and was eventually helicoptered off to a London hospital. There was no resumption of play: the fixture will be replayed at a future date.
Hastings manager Danny Searle
The month of January won’t be recalled with fondness by any Hastings supporter. A 3-1 defeat by Folkestone Invicta on New Years Day was followed by two and a half weeks of inaction as a result of adverse weather, then by two home defeats, and another reverse at Carshalton on Monday night. There’s no doubt that they face an uphill battle to avoid relegation from the Isthmian Premier League at the season’s end. They were promoted to this league in 2022, and finished in its upper reaches, just short of qualification for further promotion play-offs, in the two full seasons since. However, they now sit 20th in the current table with only Bowers & Pitsea and Bognor Regis Town below them, and a five point gap between them and 18th place which would secure their Premier status.
On 19 January they hosted Cray Wanderers. The visitors had started the season in poor league form – without a win in ten matches between August and October – but have been upwardly mobile in recent weeks, with six victories in eight matches in December and January coming into this contest. Remarkably, each of the six were by the same scoreline, 1-0.
With both sides amongst the lowest scorers in the league, Hastings manager Danny Searle no doubt drummed into his players the importance of not conceding the first goal. Included in his defensive line-up was Ollie Black, former ‘U’s favourite who has returned to the Pilot Field on loan from Worthing, and a new 20-year-old left back Alex Kpakpe. There was a notable preference for booting the ball out of defence rather than attempting to build possession play on a heavy and mud-ridden surface. George Walker, who has enjoyed a good season on the ball as full-back or wing-back but has sometimes lacked strength in defence, was pushed forward to a winger’s role.
These tactical tweaks did not bear fruit. Cray took immediate control of the midfield, scored in the 12th minute with a crisp shot after ‘U’s keeper Louis Rofers parried an initial attempt, and redoubled their lead with an angled free-kick from wide on the right that found the far corner of the Hastings net. At the other end Walker found himself clean through one-on-one with the Cray keeper, but lacked a forward’s instinct to place a shot past him.
Shortly before halftime Cray failed to clear a trademark long throw from Black – his range seems to have extended to even greater lengths in his half-season away – and Ben Wells scored for the ‘U’s at close range to reduce the deficit to 2-1. But that’s how it stayed through the second half, with the visitors continuing to make the more incisive moves and coming closer to scoring again than their hosts. Searle brought on both Fin Chapman and Will Harley to assist Davide Rodari in attack, but neither made any significant impact.
VELOCITY CUP LOSS
Three days later Hastings hosted Binfield in a quarterfinal of the Velocity Cup (effectively the Isthmian League Cup). The Berkshire side are placed in the bottom half of the South Central Division of the Isthmian League, a tier below Hastings, and a victory might have boosted morale, but Searle understandably put out a weakened team, omitting Rodari, key midfielders Jack Dixon and Adam Lovatt, and defenders Black and Finn O’Mara. Binfield again took a 2-0 lead in the first half; the ‘U’s only pulled one goal back in added time at the end of the second through Lovatt, on as a substitute.
Following the abandoned game at Chatham, United travelled again to Carshalton on a night of gusty winds in the wake of Storm Herminia. Two loan additions to the squad – midfielder Ansu Janneh, who has returned temporarily from Billericay after leaving the Pilot Field in the summer, and central defender Teddy Perkins from Welling United –were drafted in to play, with Lovatt unavailable and Dixon again on the bench.
After an even first half in which Walker provided the ‘U’s’ best moments, the home side went ahead on the stroke of halftime through another former Hastings player David Smith. Davide Rodari equalised from a free kick on the edge of the penalty area, dispatching the ball low into the right hand corner. United looked good for at least a point, if not all three, but conceded a second goal five minutes from time to go down 2-1.
Tomorrow (Saturday) the ‘U’s host East Sussex rivals Lewes, who are not in good shape themselves – without a win in ten matches over December and January, having previously been up among the league’s front runners. Three points against them would be very precious.
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