FOOTBALL: Searle Out, United Not Quite Down
25 March Hastings Utd 1 Canvey Island 1
29 March Hastings Utd 1 Billericay Town 5
5 April Bowers & Pitsea 0 Hastings Utd 2
HUGH SULLIVAN
With four matches still to play in this season’s Isthmian Premier League, Hastings United are still mathematically able to escape relegation. But after the men in claret-and-blue failed to beat fellow strugglers Canvey Island in a Tuesday evening match at the Pilot Field, and were then overrun four days later by promotion challengers Billericay Town, the United board acknowledged that a great escape under manager Danny Searle was no longer a realistic prospect.
Danny Searle at the Pilot Field
They acted swiftly: Searle departed on the Monday, “by mutual agreement” according to the statement put out by the club. And within a couple of days, six senior players whom Searle had brought in during his four-month tenure were also released. Defenders Teddy Perkins and Alex Kpakpe, midfielders Ben Wells and Taner Dogan, and forwards Reece Grant and Reuel Powell-Downey have all been thanked for their services but had their registrations cancelled.
For the game against already relegated Bowers & Pitsea last Saturday, club chair Dean White put himself in charge, brought back teenager Joe Clifford from a loan spell with Little Common and sent out a team that retained only five of the players – goalkeeper Louis Rogers, defenders Ollie Black and George Walker, and forwards Davide Rodari and Si Ligendza – who were in the starting line-up against Billericay.
Charlie Scarles, another under-18 player, was given his league debut, while the substitutes bench contained five more youth players, though none in the end appeared on the pitch.
Back on 25 March, Canvey Island came to the Pilot Field for the first of two proximate matches between the sides – the return fixture in Essex will be played tomorrow (Saturday). Both teams, and their respective supporters, were well aware that Hastings would need to win all six points at stake over the three-week double-header if they were to overhaul the Islanders.
TESTOSTERONE TUSSLE
In a rowdy tussle, high in testosterone if low in quality, Searle’s men took the lead just before halftime after a typical long throw by Black engendered a foul in the visitor’s penalty box: Rodari dispatched the penalty without fuss. But the second half was marked by a flurry of yellow cards as both sides lost discipline in increasingly frantic exchanges. In the 83rd minute the visitors equalised, then the yellow cards became red – two for the Islanders, one for United’s Kpakpe – and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Against Billericay, United conceded an early goal, equalised through Rodari, but were brushed aside thereafter, with four more goals chalked up by the Essex side before halftime to emphasise the gap in both class and confidence between the respective teams.
Last Saturday’s opponents Bowers & Pitsea had lost their last ten games, and were indeed without a win since their 4-2 victory over the ‘U’s at the Pilot Field before Christmas. It took another penalty, converted by Rodari on the stroke of halftime after a foul on Ligendza, to put Hastings ahead. A second goal, also by Rodari – his 22nd of the season – 15 minutes from time secured the points.
Given the ‘U’s gaping goal difference compared to the sides above them, relegation will still be effectively confirmed if Hastings lose to Canvey Island tomorrow and Dulwich Hamlet get a draw or better away to Bognor Regis Town. But in any event, Dean White’s depleted and now very youthful squad should look forward rather than back. It’s a new era.
ISTHMIAN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE (bottom six)
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| Canvey Island | 38 | 12 | 4 | 22 | 46 | 61 | -15 | 40 |
| Dulwich Hamlet | 38 | 11 | 7 | 20 | 53 | 71 | 18 | 40 |
| Hendon | 38 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 50 | 66 | -16 | 35 |
| Hastings United | 38 | 8 | 8 | 22 | 34 | 70 | -36 | 32 |
| Bognor Regis Town | 38 | 7 | 8 | 23 | 47 | 88 | -41 | 29 |
| Bowers & Pitsea | 38 | 5 | 4 | 29 | 29 | 82 | -53 | 19 |
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