FOOTBALL: ‘U’s Manager Agutter Surveys Season
POTTERS BAR 1, HASTINGS UTD 3
CANVEY ISLAND 0, HASTINGS UTD 0
HUGH SULLIVAN
Hastings United finished the season a creditable seventh in the Isthmian Premier League after two final low-key away games.
Davide Rodari – 29 goals for Hastings
At Potters Bar on 23 April, Davide Rodari scored his 28th and 29th goals of the campaign to put the ‘U’s 2-0 up at halftime. The home side pulled a goal back from the penalty spot after a dubious handball decision early in the second half, but Hastings held onto their lead, and John Ufuah eventually notched a third in added time to complete a 3-1 victory.
Four days later, the ‘U’s made another long trip out to Essex. They had most of the scoring chances but, with Rodari left on the substitutes’ bench until the last ten minutes, failed to convert any of them and had to settle for a 0-0 draw.
In a post-match interview, manager Chris Agutter, who recently signed an extension to his contract to stay at the club until the end of the 2025/26 season, admitted to “more than a tinge of disappointment” that the team had fallen short – in the end by nine points – of qualification for the promotion play-offs. The young average age of the squad had been responsible, he felt, for some inconsistency in their play, and they had ended the season missing too many chances in front of goal.
On the other hand, he enthused about the shared connection between the team and their supporters. “I feel we’ve got a group of players that are really invested in Hastings United”, he declared. That had sometimes tumbled into indiscipline. “But the home crowd want to see passion, blood and guts, fighting for the shirt…We could perhaps find a better balance, but I’d rather be over-the-top than undercooked”.
Asked why the team had a better record away from home, Agutter was unreserved in blaming the playing surface at the Pilot Field. “It has had a significantly negative impact on our performances, “ he said.
The ‘U’s had one game still left to contest when this newspaper went to press – the final of the Sussex Transport Cup against Horsham set for this Wednesday (8 May). The West Sussex side beat them twice in the course of the season, 2-0 in Hastings and 2-1 away, on the way to qualifying for the play-offs in fifth place, but lost last week (to Chatham, on penalties) in the play-off semi-final. This third meeting between the sides will have taken place in what are surely unimpeachable conditions – those of the Amex stadium, Premier League home of Brighton & Hove Albion – with a large contingent of supporters travelling from Hastings in expectation of a reverse outcome.
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