FOOTBALL: Up And Running
New Boss Altendorff Takes United Out of Bottom Four
21 October: Hastings 1, Broadbridge Heath 2
25 October: Hastings 1, Deal Town 3
28 October: Hastings 1, Hassocks 1
1 November: East Grinstead Town 1, Hastings 4
HUGH SULLIVAN
Fin Chapman in action for Hastings
It’s been an eventful fortnight at the Pilot Field. After home defeat by Broadbridge Heath on 21 October, Hastings United parted company with manager Lee Carey, replacing him immediately with David Altendorff, former boss at Lancing and Whitehawk. Two more Isthmian League home games ensued under the new regime, a loss to Deal Town followed by a draw with Hassocks.
But a 4-1 win away at bottom-of-the-league East Grinstead Town last Saturday took the ‘U’s out of the relegation zone.They have the chance tomorrow (Saturday) to pull further away when they host lowly Beckenham Town.
Carey’s last game against Broadbridge followed a familiar pattern. Still without main striker Bruno Tavares and with captain Brad Barry on the bench but still unfit, United toiled through a goalless first half, and went behind early in the second. Recent recruit Walter Figueira soon equalised, and a draw was on the cards when the visitors scored a late winner.
CAREY LEAVES
Replacement boss David Altendorff, who took over the role in the same week, played all his football at Step 5 (a tier below the Isthmian South-East Division) or lower, but is a PE teacher with extensive youth coaching experience. He gained a good reputation as manager at Lancing, and briefly managed Whitehawk last season in the Isthmian Premier.
The club announced immediately afterwards that Carey would step down “by mutual consent”. It had been a managerial tenure that the board clearly felt it could not prolong: eight league games lost and only two won out of 12 played, plus elimination from all major cup competitions. Carey, a well-liked former United player who captained the team that reached the third round of the FA Cup in 2012-13, may well have felt the same.
His first game in charge at the Pilot Field began with two early goals conceded to visitors Deal Town. George Taggart pulled one back at the start of the second half, but Deal soon restored their double advantage and ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.
NEW RECRUITS
Three evenings later, United hosted Hassocks, who are playing at this level for the first time in their history after promotion from the Southern Combination Premier last season. Altendorff introduced two new central defenders into the ‘U’s line-up, Sam Pidgeon and Eugene Asike, plus a hard-running midfielder Jordan Mase.
Pidgeon, in particular, who has played most of his recent football at college in the USA, looked an excellent acquisition, and Mase scored with a close-range header after a break down the right wing enabled Fin Chapman to send in a pinpoint cross.
United seemed to have done enough to claim the points, but Alterndorff’s tactic of removing all his frontline attackers – Chapman, Tavares, Taggart and Figueira – to see out the game in more defensive mode backfired. The Mid Sussex team pressed forward, bombarding the home penalty box with a series of long throws. In added time, one such throw was headed out and rifled back into the corner of the net for an equaliser. “We were trying to be professional… to do the right thing,” Altendorff said after the game.
At East Grinstead last Saturday there was no such regression. After 15 minutes, Freddie Legg latched onto a through ball from Taggart to
put the ‘U’s a goal up; eight minutes later, Mase scored a second from a right-wing cross delivered by Figueira. Although the home team halved the deficit on the half-hour mark, Chapman curled a superb shot round their goalkeeper into the bottom right hand corner to restore the two-goal lead before halftime, and in the second half Barry converted a penalty to complete a 4-1 victory.
ISTHMIAN LEAGUE SOUTH EAST DIVISION (bottom six as at 2 November 2025)
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| Sevenoaks Town | 14 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 21 | 32 | -11 | 13 |
| Hastings United | 15 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 23 | -6 | 12 |
| Ashford United | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 21 | 22 | -1 | 11 |
| VCD Athletic | 14 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 29 | -29 | 10 |
| Beckenham Town | 14 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 20 | 35 | -35 | 9 |
| East Grinstead Town | 14 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 10 | 42 | -42 | 3 |
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