FOOTBALL: Agutter – A Forthright Interviewee
Hugh Sullivan asked questions of United manager Chris Agutter shortly before the match with Sittingbourne last Saturday. He is never afraid to give straight answers HS: You’ve explained in the past that your style of playing out from the back…
United Rue Missed Chances
Hastings United lost 2-1 to Cray Wanderers in their top-of-the-table clash at Bromley on Sunday. Cray thus march on with 34 points from 12 matches in the Bostik League South-East, representing 11 wins and just one draw. Hastings remained in…
FOOTBALL: Pilot Field To Premier League?
A high percentage of Premier League players started their careers within a top level academy like Manchester United or Chelsea. More were bought in with a multi-million pound price tag from Italy, Brazil or beyond. But the cheaper way for…
FOOTBALL: Confident Agutter Plays It Southgate Style
On 24 October last year Hastings United slipped to 15th in the Bostik League South after conceding two late goals in a 2-1 home defeat by Thamesmead Town. Manager Chris Agutter, elevated from assistant less than a month before following…
FOOTBALL: The World Cup – A Morality Play
Many years ago – before Britain even entered the EU, let alone determined to leave it – a well-travelled South African explained to me a fundamental difference in outlook between the English and other Europeans. ‘If you call a Frenchman…
FOOTBALL: Less games, less travelling, lesser opposition?
Last year the Ryman League became the Bostik League in a shift of commercial sponsorship that brought little change in playing arrangements – or fortunes – for Hastings United. Next season the seventh and eighth tiers of English football will…
FOOTBALL: Dave Ormerod – Back on Board
It was on April Fool’s Day 2015 that Dave Ormerod, former postman, put his pension savings into buying majority shares in Hastings United. After two and a half years as chairman of the board he stepped down last November –…
FOOTBALL – S’no Show
Hastings United ready to play after the snow, visitors cry off After the week’s wintry weather Hastings United were frustrated in their efforts to play their Bostik League match against Reigate-based South Park last Saturday. Helped by an overnight thaw…
FOOTBALL: Younger Than That Now
The early songs of Bob Dylan are hardly likely to feature on the playlist of Hastings United manager Chris Agutter. At 30 Chris is the youngest manager in the Bostik League, and the Nobel Laureate was putting the music of…
January Jitters
Injuries and defensive frailties continue to jinx the fortunes of Hastings United by Hugh Sullivan I’ve been learning an American swing dance popularised in the early 1930s called The Balboa. The basic footwork can be summarised as two steps forward,…