Archive
Dr Martens League Eastern Division 2003-04
4/12/03
Midweek Roundup
First of all, as I know that everyone has been on the edge of their seats wondering, the wife has, at last, produced the goods, in our case, a baby girl, who arrived at the ungodly hour of 4.33am on Wednesday. Mother, baby and father are all doing well, apart from being a bit shocked to discover that are two 4.33s in the same day. Not sure what little Lucy's older brother thinks about it all. It has all come as a bit of a culture shock to him, I think, but five and a half years on from James' birth, the wife and I are sharing the culture shock with him to some extent. My daughter has arrived in plenty of time to allow me to be at the Burnham game on Saturday, reporter's notebook in hand, and I am now working on some time off from house-husbanding for the Fisher game as well. Sadly, Thursday's fans' forum is going to be somewhat inconvenient, which is a shame. I didn't get to last year's either and, to me, it would be fascinating to see just ho many of the whingers turn up and speak up, as opposed to leaving anonymous views on website guestbooks. I am hoping that Karl* is able to get there and, if so, that I can persuade him to do a few words for the site. If not, there's always next year, I guess.
Three games in the Eastern Division this midweek, two of which were significant to the old relegation dogfight. Chatham made it three wins on the bounce, with a 1-0 victory at home to inconsistent King's Lynn. Chatham's fine run has taken them out of the bottom six for the first time since opening day. Erith & Belvedere remain cast adrift at the foot of the table after crashing 3-0 at Salisbury, who are up to fifth. Histon moved above King's Lynn into second place after a 2-1 win at Stamford and now trail Tonbridge by thirteen points with three games in hand. Both sides remain unbeaten, but then, neither have played us yet.
In the midweek FA Trophy ties, Lewes were involved in a curious game at Cinderford, all the goals in a 3-3 draw coming in the first half, including two penalties apiece. Lewes were 3-1 up after half an hour as well, but had to settle for a replay next week. Folkestone joined Histon and King's Lynn in the third round, courtesy of Adam Flanagan's goal five minutes from the end of extra time, which proved to be the only goal of their home replay against Havant & Waterlooville. Crawley also needed extra time, during which they scored three times, to win 4-1 at home to St Albans City. Steve Claridge scored twice as Weymouth came from behind to win 3-1 away to Ashford Town of the Middlesex variety. And Yeading, who beat us in the preliminary round, lost 3-1 at home to Taunton Town, who next visit Worthing. The full third round draw looks like this, with ties to take place on 10 January.
Telford United v Alfreton TownShrewsbury Town v Morecambe
Altrincham v Runcorn FC Halton
Scarborough v Stafford Rangers
Hednesford Town v Gresley Rovers
Leigh RMI v Stalybridge Celtic
Blyth Spartans v Barrow
Chester City v Halifax Town
Burton Albion v Accrington Stanley
Marine v Northwich Victoria
Rossendale United or Guiseley v Worksop Town
Hucknall Town v Bradford Park Avenue
Burscough v Tamworth
Bishop's Stortford v Aldershot Town
King's Lynn v Basingstoke Town
Gravesend & Northfleet v Weston-super-Mare
Dorchester Town v Margate
Folkestone Invicta v Stevenage Borough
Hornchurch v Aylesbury United
Kettering Town v Woking
Exeter City v Hereford United
Marlow v Ford United
Barnet v Dover Athletic
Forest Green Rovers v Sutton United
Histon v Maidenhead United
Cinderford Town or Lewes v Weymouth
Wealdstone v Thurrock
Canvey Island v Farnborough Town
Hayes v Arlesey Town
Dagenham & Redbridge v Crawley Town
Staines Town v Bath City
Worthing v Taunton Town
Only one of the local County League sides were in action this midweek. Westfield enjoyed a successful trip to Lancing for a second division fixture, Duncan Jones scoring twice in their 3-0 victory. The win took Westfield back up to fourth place in the table, five points behind the leaders Worthing United. There was a big game at the top of the first division, with Chichester City United strengthening their table topping position with a 2-1 win away to Three Bridges. They are now six points ahead of second placed Hassocks. Arundel are now fifth after a 2-0 win at Whitehawk. Rye & Iden United are seventh, ten points behind the leaders, but with a game in hand. St Leonards are a further six points back in twelfth place, with Sidley United one point and one place behind them. Those two are due to meet in a league fixture at Gullivers on Saturday, when Rye & Iden are at home to Whitehawk. Westfield visit Wick.
I have only a couple of rearranged fixtures to confirm, as far as news coming out of The Pilot Field is concerned. The home game against Salisbury City, which was postponed a few weeks back, will now take place on Tuesday, 27 January. Meanwhile, the home game against King's Lynn, which clashes with the FA Trophy on 10 January, will now be played on Tuesday, 24 February instead. With nothing further to add, I shall return to my bottles and nappies, until 3.00pm on Saturday, at least.
Sean Adams.
* I did manage to get to the fans' forum, and will get a summary together in the near future. Had a couple of technical problems this week, after upgrading to a new computer. Hopefully will be back to normal now.
KH
6/12/03 Hastings United (1) 2 Burnham (1) 2
KEEP THE FAITH
Att: 264
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If you score two, we'll score three, has worked quite well for the last couple of weeks on the road in Northamptonshire, but alas, not upon our return to league action at the Pilot Field after a three week break. To be fair to the lads, Burnham's 90th minute equaliser was rather freakish and denied us a third successive come from behind win, but it was no more than the visitors deserved. They looked nothing like a side without a win in seven games, except perhaps in their finishing, which, had it been better, could have seen us buried by half time. Since our mini revival against Rothwell, Erith & Belvedere and Ashford back in October, only Westfield have failed to score against us and everyone else has managed to do so at least twice. We have won three and drawn two of those eleven matches, which is a rather better return than we managed whilst we were experiencing similar defensive problems at the start of the season, but it is quite clear to me, that the loss of Tony Burt continues to be felt, and it is perhaps time to find an accomplished replacement. Having said all that, Burnham's second goal was down to a mixture of good fortune and very poor goalkeeping, the latter of which will presumably see Greg Nessling replace Will Toal, now that his twenty-one day County FA suspension is at an end. Just the one change from the starting line-up at Rothwell last week, although that meant a few more positional changes. Jimmy Elford dropped back into the defensive trio with Ricky Spiller officially replacing Simon Stickney, although he played in central midfield. Mitchell Sherwood switched to the right flank with Steve Hafner down the left. Otherwise, it was as you were, with Stuart Myall only returning as far as the bench, alongside Stickney and Ryan Peters. I suppose that you can't fault Steve Lovell for more or less keeping faith with the line-up that worked at Corby and Rothwell, but I would personally have preferred to see Mylie and Ryan on from the start, probably in place of Ricky and Charlie Belcher, neither of whom have put a foot wrong you understand, I simply think that it is rather a waste of two extremely talented players, to leave them on the bench until the final quarter of the game. Not sure about Jimmy in defence either, he looked a bit fish-out-of-water like for me and I am sure that Graham Morris would be a better option, if only as he is a natural defender. Those good old defensive frailties were exposed very early on against Burnham. Jimmy was caught out of position as Terry Mitchell lobbed a through ball over the top for Geoff Neville to run onto. Even then, Jimmy managed to get back and force Neville wide, but he still got a left foot shot in, which Will might have been disappointed not to have saved. A goal down after just three minutes then, and it could have gotten a lot worse. An inswinging free kick from the right flew across goal and evaded everyone and Mitchell's cross found Neville unmarked at the far post, but his control was awful and Will was able to gather. Our Mitchell's pace was causing a few problems down the right wing and Steve Ringwood was unable to connect effectively with a couple of dangerous crosses. Burnham were still good for their lead though and should have extended it on the half hour when Will failed to collect another inswinging free kick, the ball running loose to Neville, who volleyed over a virtually unguarded net from no more than ten yards out. A minute later, Mitchell set up Neville down the left and he shot across Will and just wide and, frankly, we were struggling. Six minutes before the interval though, we drew level. Steve Ringwood's played a beautiful pass inside the full back for Steve Hafner, who drew the goalkeeper and chipped the ball across for Carl to score from a couple of yards out. The half ended with Will producing a decent save from Adam Logie's long range effort to keep the scores level. We did improve after the break, Mitchell firing over after Steve Ringwood set him up down the right and Mitchell was then denied by Julian Dale, when a corner found it's way to him at the far post, Mitchell volleying goalwards and the keeper fumbling the shot but gathering at the second attempt. Mitchell was next involved back on his own goalline, clearing away a Roger Emms header from a corner. Another corner, moments later, saw Paul Brett head home, but Will was adjudged to have been fouled. With twenty minutes remaining, Steve Ringwood embarked on a weaving run, which was brought to an illegal end right on the edge of the penalty area. I had just finished writing a note to that effect, when I looked up, just as Steve Hafner had drilled the free kick into the back of the net, with Dale hopelessly out of position, still lining up the wall. It is rather unusual to see goals allowed to stand in such circumstances, but I can only assume that the referee had given Steve permission to take the kick early and there were scarcely any complaints from the Burnham players. Up to the other end straight away, where Will, out of position again, made a good recovery save from Terry Mitchell's long range volley. Chris Honey came within a whisker of getting a third, but was just unable to reach Ricky's excellent cross with thirteen minutes left and that was to be our last opportunity to seal the victory. Burnham's sucker punch didn't arrive until two minutes of stoppage time had been played. Substitute Jon Horsted sent in a deep cross from the left, mishit it completely, straight at Will, but Will managed to misjudge the flight of the ball, advanced a couple of paces, backpedalled again, but to no avail. The ball hit the back of the net and the proverbial pins could be heard echoing around the ground. The referee blew for full time as soon as we had kicked off and it really did feel like we had lost, rather than drawn. Three second half bookings all went Burnham's way, as Steve Hafner seemed to become a target for some pretty rough treatment. First, a cynical foul by Steve Lockhart as Steve was about to break into the Burnham half resulted in an obvious yellow card. Then, four minutes after Steve's goal, Roger Emms was booked, possibly for a foul on someone else, but at the same time, off the ball, Steve was hacked down by full back, Chris Ferdinand, who escaped without punishment. Within a minute, Steve went down, under challenge from the same player, clutching his face after an apparent elbow, which was unseen by the officials. Ferdinand was immediately substituted, maybe coincidentally, maybe not. About five minutes later, Terry Mitchell caught Steve with a poor tackle, for which he was at least very apologetic, and his was the third name taken. Steve was soon withdrawn to prevent him from any further punishment, bruised and battered but, fortunately, still standing. |
Elsewhere
Whilst our draw was certainly disappointing in light of our last couple of league results, it was far from disastrous on the whole, as Erith & Belvedere were the only side below us to win on Saturday. Darren Adams helped himself to a hattrick in their demolition of our next opponents, Fisher Athletic. The win wasn't good enough to lift them off the bottom though, as Rothwell picked up a point at Folkestone. Burnham's point at our place was enough to move them up a couple of places, thanks to heavy defeats for Corby and Fisher, whilst Chatham's defeat was their first in the league since 25 October. At the top, Tonbridge have finally been beaten and well beaten at third placed King's Lynn, in front of an incredible gate of 1004, a season high for the Eastern Division. That allowed Histon to close the gap to ten points, after their big win at Fleet, and they still have three games in hand. The entire top six remained unchanged, positionally speaking. Here are all of Saturday's results.
Banbury United 2 v 1 Newport IoWBurgess Hill Town 5 v 2 Corby Town
Chatham Town 2 v 3 Salisbury City
Erith & Belvedere 4 v 1 Fisher Athletic
Fleet Town 2 v 5 Histon
Folkestone Invicta 0 v 0 Rothwell Town
Hastings United 2 v 2 Burnham
King's Lynn 4 v 1 Tonbridge Angels
Sittingbourne 2 v 0 Bashley
Stamford 1 v 1 Eastleigh
The reserves continue to lurch from one disastrous result to another and emerged from Saturday's trip to Dartford on the wrong end of a 6-0 drubbing, against a side that had won only three of their first thirteen league games. The starting eleven contained six youth team players, a far cry from the experience, upon which they were able to call a few months ago. Their cause will not have been helped by the decision of three players, James Sims and Tim and Adie Olorunda, to join the Gary Bowyer revolution up at The Firs. These are three very good young players, all of whom had the potential to become first team regulars in the future at The Pilot Field and, who knows, may still do so at some stage. It is disappointing, but perhaps understandable, that the lure of first team action, albeit at County League level has tempted them away at this stage, but it must beat County League division one reserve team action. There is an interesting footnote here, in that, according to Tony Cosens, and he should know, St Leonards failed to put in a formal seven day letter of approach for any of the players and we will be registering a formal complaint with the Sussex FA. Quite what the punishment may be, I know not. A fine would be no good, they haven't got any money. A points deduction similarly so, they've hardly got enough to take. Watch this space and we'll see where this one goes. It all seems a touch ironic after what Bowyer was spouting about our perfectly legal approach for Greg Nessling a couple of weeks back. A classic case of 'do as I say, don't do as I do', perhaps? By the way, back in the Kent League, Corinthian's 1-0 win over Ramsgate took them back to the top of the table, three points ahead of Dover, who didn't play, and six clear of ourselves in third. It could well prove to be just as well that we started as well as we did this season, as this is one situation that shows no sign of imminent improvement. Erith Town are at The Pilot Field next week and, like Dartford, they have won only three games thus far, but there are clearly going to be no more easy games for our lads. Good luck to them.
Saturday was second round day in the FA Cup and it was the end of the road for the one remaining Dr Martens League side, Weston-super-Mare, who lost 4-1 at Northampton of the third division. Telford United produced the result of the day, thumping second division Brentford 3-0 courtesy of a Christian Moore hattrick. Brentford played the final thirty-five minutes with ten men after having one sent off, but Telford were already one up at the time. Another Conference side, Accrington Stanley, earnt themselves a home replay against second division Bournemouth, leading at half time, before drawing 1-1. Aldershot Town, Gravesend & Northfleet, Hornchurch, Stevenage Borough, Woking and Barnet are all out though, all losing to league opposition. Burton Albion and Scarborough play on Sunday.
Locally, Eastbourne Borough slumped to a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Worcester City on Saturday, but stay in 11th place in the Premier Division table. Scott Ramsay scored the Eastbourne goal, to make it 2-1 just after half time, but Worcester ran out very comfortable winners in the end. In the County League, Rye & Iden United suffered a surprise 2-1 home defeat to Whitehawk, after Dean Chamberlain had given them an early lead. At Gullivers, Sidley United beat St Leonards for the second time in eighteen days, 2-1 this time, in front of 135 spectators, more than half than were at The Pilot Field. Jody Ricketts had given the Saints a 50th minute lead, before Dadswell and Finch turned things round and Sidley move above St Leonards in the table for possibly the first time this season. In the second division Westfield lost 2-1 at Wick and slip to sixth place as a result.
And so, it's off to Fisher next Saturday, a ground that I have only visited once, when I was lucky enough to catch the last twenty minutes of our 3-2 win in our promotion season two years ago. When I say 'lucky', there is an element of irony speaking, as I had fully intended seeing the whole game, only to take the wrong exit at the Rotherhithe Tunnel roundabout, going through the Tunnel itself and ending up north of the river, after which I got completely lost in Central London, only able to retrace my steps about ninety minutes later. There was consolation in learning that we were winning when I eventually arrived and Simon's video highlights tape at least allowed me to see the goals a few weeks later. In fifteen years of travelling to away games. it remains one of only two games, for which I have ever been late, the other being a trip to Gresley Rovers in a blizzard in 1993, when I arrived at about 3.20. Anyway, back to Fisher. That 3-2 win in 2002, followed an early season 2-1 win at home and gave us a rare league double over the Londoners. The other game against them, which sticks in my mind, was way back in 1983/84, in the days of the original Hastings United, when there was a mass punch-up in the players tunnel area, after we had beaten them 3-2 in an overly physical encounter. Anyone else remember that one? Next Saturday's will be another game, from which we will hope to emerge with some reward, as Fisher currently sit three places, and two points, below us in the table. They have lost seven of their last nine league games, conceding twenty-five goals in the process, but did secure important wins at Fleet and at home to Corby during that run. As usual, they are struggling to get fans in through the turnstiles and only Corby have a lower average home attendance. If I can get some time off for good behaviour, I shall hope to swell the numbers by at least one, but if not, Karl should be going and he will bring you the spectator's view next week.
Sean Adams
12/12/03
Midweek Roundup
All quiet at The Pilot Field once again this midweek, so this update just contains news of other games in the DM and local leagues this week. That said, it wasn't exactly a busy week in the DM this week either, with only two games scheduled, neither of which reached a natural conclusion. On Tuesday, Ashford and Sittingbourne played out a tedious and goalless first half at Homelands, before supporters were put out of their misery eight minutes into the second half, when dense fog caused the game to be abandoned. There can surely be nothing more frustrating in football than paying your entrance fee, only to have the game ended early. But to go home knowing that you have witnessed a dreadful encounter, which will count for nothing anyway, must compound the agony. Wednesday's match between Burgess Hill and Burnham was postponed at 4.30 in the afternoon, with fog already gathering and threatening to worsen. So, the league table remains unchanged going into the weekend's fixtures, which include our trip to Fisher. The other big game at the bottom sees Burnham entertain Chatham and there is a big Kent derby at Longmead with leaders Tonbridge playing host to Folkestone.
There have been twelve League Cup third round ties played this week, one of which, the Welling v Eastbourne tie, was abandoned after just twenty-four minutes because of more fog, with the score still 0-0. The other results are below, the pick of which would probably be Folkestone's win over Chelmsford courtesy of two goals from Allan Tait and a scoring return for Jim Dryden, who was stretchered off at The Pilot Field last month.
Bath City 3 v 0 Cirencester TownDorchester Town 2 v 0 Weston-super-Mare
Dover Athletic 4 v 1 Chatham Town
Folkestone Invicta 4 v 3 Chelmsford City
Grantham Town 0 v 2 Cambridge City
Hednesford Town 3 v 3 Bedworth United (a.e.t. Hednesford Town won 4 v 2 on penalties)
Hinckley United 3 v 0 Histon
Moor Green 5 v 0 Stafford Rangers
Nuneaton Borough 1 v 0 Gresley Rovers
Weymouth 4 v 2 Merthyr Tydfil (a.e.t.)
Worcester City 1 v 1 Sutton Coldfield Town (a.e.t. Worcester City won 5 v 4 on penalties)
Lewes played their FA Trophy second round replay with Cinderford Town on Tuesday, the two teams having shared six first half goals in the original game. The replay was no less entertaining, with Lewes running out winners by the odd goal in seven. Lewes were two up in twenty-three minutes, but Cinderford pulled one back before the break. There were no more goals until the eighty-ninth minute when the visitors equalised, only for Lewes to go back in front from the very next attack. Deep into stoppage time, Cinderford levelled again, but there was still time for Lewes to grab a winner. An extraordinary tie all round then, and Lewes' reward is a home game with DM Premier leaders, Weymouth, on 10 January.
Slightly closer to home, in the County League, there were only three games on Tuesday, but Rye & Iden United and Sidley United were both in action. Rye & Iden won a thriller at The Salts, beating Eastbourne Town 4-2, battling back from conceding an early goal, to take a 2-1 lead in at the break, thanks to goals from Scott Price (a penalty) and Shaun Loft. After half time, further goals from Nathan Godden and Simon Fox made the game safe, Eastbourne managing to net a late consolation. Rye & Iden remain in seventh place, but are now within touching distance of second, although still ten points off Chichester's lead. Meanwhile, Sidley slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Redhill, Kevin Rose scoring the Sidley goal, a first half equaliser, only for the winner to arrive shortly after the interval. Sidley stay in eleventh, a couple of points and places above St Leonards. On Saturday, Sidley are at home to Pagham, while Rye & Iden visit Ringmer. St Leonards and Westfield are both in cup action, at home to Southwick and Mile Oak respectively, in the third round of their respective League Cup competitions. Don't forget though, that if you aren't going to Fisher, our reserves are at home to Erith Town on Saturday and there is never a dull moment with them at the moment.
Just to finish on a potentially sad note. After reporting on Tonbridge's money problems a couple of weeks back, it was disappointing to read, on the Non-League Paper website, that Newport IoW are experiencing severe problems once again, the club's financial affairs now being managed by a firm of accountants and receivers having been called in. The problems relate to the Chairman's disillusionment at falling gates and a general sense of apathy at the existence of a senior non-league club on the island. The club called in the receivers after their relegation back to the DME last season, but survived when the local council paid them £750,000 for a training ground. Now, the receivers will try to sell the club as a going concern, but should they fail, the club's assets would be sold separately, including their ground, which would surely mean the end of the road. It all seems desperately sad to me and let's hope that they pull through. No more news on the Tonbridge situation by the way. As far as I am aware, they are still searching for a new main sponsor, although the players and the management have remained loyal, so far. And if these situations tell us anything, it's what an amazing job the guys now running Hastings United on a shoestring budget are doing. Rich benefactors are very welcome, of course, and we have been fortunate to have been involved with two in recent times, but it is when you have to manage without, that you really start to earn your stripes. At least we still have a team to watch, which the people of the Isle of Wight may not be able to boast for too much longer.
Sean Adams
13/12/03 Fisher Athletic (2) 2 Hastings United (1) 2
PENALTY MANIA
Att: 117
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I think that I may have mentioned this last week, but if only we could stop conceding two goals a game, how much more comfortable would the previous few weeks have been? Not that I am complaining as we twice fought back at The Surrey Docks Stadium and extended our unbeaten run to five matches, stretching way back to the embarrassing Sussex Senior Cup defeat at Eastbourne United Association on 18 November. Since then, the lads have won vital games at Corby and Rothwell, as well as avoiding defeat in further vital games with Burnham and now Fisher. It has been an important run of results against four of our relegation rivals, if you will forgive me for putting us in that bracket, and will hopefully have given the old confidence a real boost, with some tougher looking matches to come over the holiday period and into the New Year. Sadly, I had to settle for a trip to The Pilot Field to see the reserve game against Erith Town, rather than the slightly longer journey to south-east London, but in return for missing this one, I may well be allowed Boxing Day off from family duty, for the return match at Burgess Hill, but I'll believe it when I see it. Nothing like being under the thumb now, is there? Not having been there, I have again had to rely on Tony Cosens' Newsline report for some match details and he described it as a poor game and a disappointing performance from the lads, in which we should have been grateful for the point. That said, Fisher played the majority of the second half with ten men, although, arguably, they still looked the better side. Steve Lovell sprung a bit of a surprise in picking Will in goal, despite Greg Nessling's availability, but Greg was left on the bench and Will produced a more competent display than against Burnham last week. I would love to comment on the rest of the line-up, but as I write these words, I don't know what it was. Fisher took the lead after seventeen minutes, when a cross from the left reached the unmarked Gary Abbott, Fisher's player-manager, at the near post and he headed home. Five minutes later, we were level, when Chris Honey was pulled back in the area and Steve Hafner converted a penalty. In the last minute of the first half, Abbott was allowed a free header at the far post and restored Fisher's lead, but just seven minutes after the restart, we were given another penalty when a home player allegedly threw a punch at Carl Rook and was sent off. This time, Steve's effort was saved, but as he attempted to gather the rebound, he was fouled and the referee awarded us yet another penalty. Steve decided to let Stuart Myall take this one and he made no mistake. Thereafter, chances were spurned at both ends, although more at our end than their's. Ricky Spiller came close to grabbing a late winner, but it would appear that it would have been more than we deserved. And in case anyone was wondering who this rather generous referee was, well, it could only have been the lovely Mr Valentino really, couldn't it? He who intensely annoyed the travelling fans when we visited The Crabble last season, before starting to make up for it by giving us a dubious penalty at Sittingbourne this season and then going overboard on Saturday at Fisher. The only trouble is, he probably thinks that he has evened things up now, so the next time we see him, we can expect no favours again. Sean Adams Having managed to get to this game just a few points to suppliment Sean's excellent summary of the game. The pitch was very tricky as constant light drizzle interspersed with some proper rain left a treacherous surface. So from the start the entertainment was more likely to come from mistakes, rather than precision passing. Fisher however were not phased, and two of their forwards (Goma Lambu and Marlon Patterson) kept our defence on their toes for a lot of the game. This was especially impressive as they were missing the league's top scorer Richard Brady. Again United were guilty of not testing the Fisher keeper enough, new signing Robert O'Hara. After the sending off, Hastings looked better and had some mazey runs at the Fisher defence, one of which resulted in a save from Ricky Spiller. When Ryan Peters came on, he seemed to balance the midfield, and provide a good linking role. The last ten minutes were real nail biters, and the game could have gone either way, with chances at both ends. A draw seemed a fair result, with no one able to produce the killer punch. KH |
Elsewhere
Although a point was a decent enough return, it proved to be not quite good enough for us to hang onto fifteenth place in the league table. Chatham's fourth win in five games has taken them above us on goal difference. Their season has been turned around since former Dover boss, Clive Walker, took over as manager last month. Up until 15 November, their only win had been at our place, but they are certainly heading in the right direction now. Erith & Belvedere's draw at Ashford lifted them off the foot of the table at Rothwell Town's expense and the only other side below us to get a point was Fisher. At the top, Tonbridge lost for the second week running and are now just the seven points clear of Histon, who scored five of their six against Dartford in the first half, and who still have three games in hand. The top six remain positionally unchanged again, but Folkestone are closing in on Banbury now and have games in hand on everyone above them, even Histon. There were two games postponed because of the weather, but these were Saturday's scores.
Ashford Town 1 v 1 Erith & BelvedereBashley P v P Stamford
Burnham 0 v 2 Chatham Town
Corby Town 0 v 4 Sittingbourne
Eastleigh 6 v 1 Banbury United
Fisher Athletic 2 v 2 Hastings United
Histon 6 v 0 Dartford
Newport IoW 0 v 0 King's Lynn
Rothwell Town P v P Burgess Hill Town
Salisbury City 1 v 0 Fleet Town
Tonbridge Angels 1 v 2 Folkestone Invicta
The reserves returned to winning ways with a 5-1 thumping of Erith Town in an enormously entertaining match, played in quite appalling conditions. The persistent rain was a real test of the much vilified new drainage system and it has to be said that the pitch looked really good, apart from the tramline effect, which we are just going to have to put up with for the rest of the season. Our lads took a fourth minute lead, when Ian Young ran onto a through ball down the middle and clipped a shot past the visiting keeper. Erith equalised after about twenty minutes, a simple header from a right wing cross, but Ian and Scott Hayhoe both went close on two occasions as we finished the first half strongly. Straight from the kick off in the second half, Bruce Sands was fouled in the corner of the penalty area and Graham Morris restored our lead from the spot. Numerous chances were missed at both ends and the game wasn't made safe until eight minutes from time, when Dominic Cruttenden broke clear down the left and crossed for Ian to score his second. He completed his hattrick in the last minute, running onto Bruce's through ball, rounding the keeper and beating the last defender on the line and in stoppage time, Bruce supplied another quality pass for Danny Ellis to run through to complete the scoring. Perhaps the scoreline was a little flattering in the end, but it was a tremendous win for the lads, beset with injury problems and minus the three players, who left for St Leonards recently. Regular keeper, Sam Harris-Green, was unable to play, having gone down with flu, and he was replaced by another young lad (name unknown, but from the youth team I guess), who looked a bit shaky early on and was at fault for the goal, but grew in confidence in the second half, making some excellent saves to preserve our advantage. James Penfold and Scott Hayhoe were returning from injury absences and both played well. Skipper Graham Morris had a good game, out of position in midfield, as did Joe Heasmer at left back. Bruce Sands looks a fine prospect, if frustratingly lazy at times and up front, Ian Young works very hard and knows where the goal is, which is always useful for a striker. The rest were Mark Butler, Adam Warmington, Danny Ellis, Dominic Cruttenden and substitute Matt Sellick, who replaced the tiring Penfold in the second half. The constantly changing and inexperienced line-up is going to lead to a few heavy defeats every now and then, as will the slightly cavalier attitude to the defensive side of the game. They do have the ability to look very good going forward though and you are always guaranteed value for money when they play. They are without a game next week and visit Dartford, where they lost 6-0 last week, for a League Cup second round tie on 27 December. On 3 January, Rock-a-Nore are at The Pilot Field in the third round of the Hastings Intermediate Cup, so the next league game will not be for at least four weeks. Our lads will go into the Christmas period in third place in the table. Dover's game at Herne Bay on Saturday was postponed, so we are level on points with them once again, but our goal difference has taken a bit of a hammering in recent weeks, so we are quite some way adrift. Leaders Corinthian thrashed Danson Furness 11-0 to open up a six point lead at the top. We have played the same number of games as Corinthian and one more than Dover.
Elsewhere locally, Eastbourne Borough lost heavily, 4-1 at Stafford, who were two up at the break. Matt Crabb pulled one back early in the second half, but the hosts ran away with it in the closing stages. Dover's win at home to Grantham saw Borough slip a place to twelfth in the Premier Division table and with Eastbourne on a run of one win in seven, they will be looking a little nervously over their shoulders perhaps, as they now stand just seven points clear of the bottom four. Eastbourne have been struggling with injuries this season, much like ourselves, but I must confess to having rather less sympathy with their plight, having raided The Pilot Field for our better players during the summer. Of our local County League sides, only Westfield played, as the weather caused the postponement of the games that were to involve Rye & Iden, St Leonards and Sidley. Westfield enjoyed a 4-2 home victory over Mile Oak to move into the semi final of the Division Two Cup, where they will be away to either Eastbourne United Association (good side that) or Littlehampton Town. Westfield were one down at half time, but three goals within ten minutes of the restart put them in apparent control. Mile Oak pulled one back on the hour mark, but Duncan Jones effort with thirteen minutes remaining sealed the win. Dominic Clarke scored the first and third goals, the other coming from Sam Jamison.
Once again, neither of our sides are involved in midweek action, although there are four games in the Eastern Division on Tuesday and Wednesday, which will give me something to talk about. Next Saturday will see the final game at The Pilot Field in 2003 and we will play host to our one time nemesis Sittingbourne. The Brickies currently sit in ninth place in the table, with eight wins, three draws and eight defeats, giving them twenty-seven points. Seven of those wins have come in their last ten outings, including Saturday's 4-0 romp at Corby, the others being defeats to Histon (twice) and Tonbridge. They made a similarly poor start to ourselves and when we drew 2-2 at Central Park back on 23 August, it was Sittingbourne's first point of the season, their first win not arriving for a further two weeks. Since mid-October, they have gained the sort of consistency that we have been seeking and now find themselves on the edge of the promised land that is the top seven places in the table. They have at least one ex-Hastings player amongst their ranks, although Jon Neal was little more than a decent reserve and fringe first team striker in his days at The Pilot Field. Hastings supporters don't require the longest of memories to remember the lengthy period in the 80s and 90s, when we just couldn't beat Sittingbourne, no matter how superior to them we may have looked on paper. The streak finally ended with a 5-1 away win in September 2000 but was followed by a 1-1 draw in the return fixture. The following season saw a 3-0 away win in February 2002, but we again failed to win the home game, which ended in a dull 0-0 draw. Dare I suggest that a home win against them is too long overdue but I am sure that Steve Lovell's former side will be equally keen to put one over his current side and it will be as tough a test as we have had in quite a while.
Sean Adams
I'm currently working on the notes that I took at the fan's forum, they will probably appear in the mid-week roundup.
KH
18/12/03
Midweek Roundup
Another quiet week at The Pilot Field with no midweek action to discuss. One piece of news on the player front is that Steve Ringwood is set to miss the next couple of matches as he is away over the Christmas period. He is due to return in time for the Tonbridge game on New Year's Day, although history would dictate that he will struggle to walk back into the starting line-up straight away. Steve Lovell has continually shown himself to be pretty loyal to those in possession of the shirts numbered one to eleven and my guess would be that this represents an ideal opportunity for Ryan Peters to return to the centre of midfield. Once there, I would reckon that he will be hard to dislodge, but we'll have to wait and see.
Three matches were played in the Eastern Division on Tuesday evening and one on the Wednesday. The surprise result came at Longmead, where one time runaway leaders Tonbridge, suffered their third defeat on the trot, going down 1-0 to Chatham, who have now won five of their last six. The Angels' form appears to have deserted them at the same time as their chief sponsor, but on the other hand, Chatham's fortunes have rocketed since former Dover boss, Clive Walker, took over as manager last month and, after moving above us at the weekend, this latest win has allowed them to leapfrog Dartford and reach the heady heights of fourteenth place. The only goal came in the very first minute and will further dent Tonbridge's promotion aspirations, although at least they still have points on the board. Interesting also that the attendance at Longmead was a season's low 328 and for a Kent derby at that. Dartford slipped to a fourth straight defeat, beaten 2-0 at home by Ashford in a game that marked the welcome return of Paul Jones, now recovered from his broken leg. Salisbury and Stamford shared a 1-1 draw, which was of little use to either of them. And our Boxing Day opponents, Burgess Hill, won 2-1 at home to Banbury and are now unbeaten in six, five of which they have won. Elsewhere, Crawley and Eastleigh moved into the fourth round of the League Cup. Crawley won 3-2 at Havant & Waterlooville, after extra time, while Eastleigh enjoyed a rather more comfortable 4-1 win at home to Fleet.
Sidley United were the only local side in County League action this midweek, losing 2-0 at Eastbourne Town. Chichester's 1-0 win at Whitehawk took them six points clear at the top of the table, with Eastbourne now second on goal difference ahead of East Preston. Most of the chasing sides have one or two games on hand on the though. Sidley stay in eleventh place. Sidley's reserves were also beaten this week, 2-1 at home by Rye & Iden's reserves, in the third round of the Hastings Intermediate Cup.
The next update will appear on Sunday, as usual, with details of Saturday's match with Sittingbourne and the rest of the local action.
Sean Adams
Summary of Supporter's club meeting 4/12/03
These are a selection of some of the points made at the meeting. As with the previous meetings that I've attended there were about thirty people there with maybe half a dozen asking the majority of the questions to the representatives of the club. From the club were some of the directors, Club Secretary Tony Cosens and the man in the hot seat, Steve Lovell.
Robin Powell (chairman of the supporter's club) started things off by asking about the 'controversial' team selection in the cup games. Predictably Steve replied that the league position was the main target for the year. He stressed that he put out a team that he thought should win the game (in reference to the Eastbourne United Association game), and that included the selection of fringe players who could be given a chance to impress. He was apologetic when people were led to believe otherwise. Personally I think that his words were a bit mangled by the local media.
It must be remembered that we've had a bit of an injury crisis which did not help his team selection. If I'd been a bit more alert, maybe I'd have asked about trying to select more of a constant team when we went on that mini run. However I was very impressed by his stress on building a team spirit, something that was sadly lacking last season. Rather than the situation of last year whereby the reserves were essentially a different unit, this year it has more of a squad feel to it. I thought back to Chelmsford away when Dave King walked quite a way out of his goal area to berate another member of the team who he didn't feel was trying hard enough. At the end of the day a true test of a team is how they cope when things are difficult. Last year ours disintegrated.
When asked about local talent, Steve basically said although there was good raw talent, he wasn't impressed by the quality of coaching the players had experienced. He also said he would like to have closer links with the youth teams which have until now been very patchy.
The whole team is working hard. Ideally he would like another experienced centre-half though he isn't actively looking for one. He likes to deal with positives and believes that competition in all areas of the field is needed. He encourages the players to analyse their own game, as it's hard to scrutinise them all during training. His ideal is to be able to get the players to play at their highest level. There is currently an air of mutual respect between players and management that wasn't there last year (things like the dressing room is left in a better condition after matches). Steve revealed that George Graham was a big influence on his style whilst he was at Milwall. There have been rumours of interest from other clubs concerning some of the players. It was also 'revealed' that Graham Webb has left the club.
When asked about the stand behind the goal, there is nothing official happening, the current priority of the club is for the playing squad. Robin Powell is seeking to address this area, and some money has already been raised, and basically the more people who attend the events that he organises, the quicker we'll be dry at the Wood End.
When asked about whether he can two jobs, the answer was an emphatic yes (Steve is also the head of football in the community at Gillingham). It is mutually beneficial as scouting network can work both ways. He paid tribute to the fans saying that the support he has received since he's been at Hastings has been first class.
The eternal one senior club question was raised. The directors responded that there has been several attempts to bring about this situation, and currently there is no contact. The last time, St. Leonards walked away.
Robin brought up the idea of forming a supporters club trust, and how would the directors respond to this. They were very positive about the idea. Mick Mappleston (the majority shareholder) is currently looking to sell his interest in the club.
In summary I thought all the representatives of our club came across as very honest. This was the first time that I had heard Steve Lovell speak, and I believe we are lucky to have such a positive and forward looking manager as such a testing time. If you get the chance, try and get to the next meeting.
KH
20/12/03 Hastings United (2) 2 Sittingbourne (1) 2
STOLEN
Att: 232
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It's good to see that some things don't change. No matter how much turmoil there may be around the world, when it comes to Hastings v Sittingbourne in the Dr Martens League, you can pretty much put your house on any result other than a home win. In fact, this latest draw was the seventh in a row at The Pilot Field, a sequence dating back to the 1994/95 season. It's a good job that we did manage to win a couple of times at Central Park in the last few seasons, otherwise I might have to start believing in jinxes, or bogey teams, which of course, I don't. On paper, this was actually a decent point against one of the form teams in the division. The sense of disappointment at dropping another two points at home, after a pretty dominant display, was fairly tangible though, especially as Bourne's equaliser arrived so late in the game, courtesy of another piece of indifferent defending. On the bright side, our unbeaten run now stands at six matches, but the last three have all ended two all and Westfield are still the only side to fail to score at least twice against us, since Ashford on 25 October, our last home league win by the way. The starting eleven showed two changes to last week's at Fisher. Greg Nessling belatedly became our fifth goalkeeper of the season, taking over from Will, whose performances had become increasing more error-strewn of late. And, as I suggested in my midweek notes, Ryan Peters started a league game for the first time since 23 September, in place of Steve Ringwood. As the reserves were without a game, Steve Lovell was able to name his full quota of five substitutes for a change, although Scott Hayhoe was the only one to see any action, as a very late replacement for Mitchell Sherwood. If there's one thing you need when you are trying to lay a few ghosts to rest, not that we were though of course, it's an early goal and we were lucky enough to get two. We have had to wait a long time, back to that Ashford game again in fact, to see us score first in a league game. Just eleven minutes had elapsed when one of Mylie's trademark long throws was flicked on by Chris Honey and Carl Rook beat Kevin Fewell with a crisp volley at the near post. Two minutes later, we won a corner on the stand side, which was taken short to Ryan by the corner of the penalty area. He took aim and fired in an absolute bullet of a shot, which flew past Fewell and into the back of the net via the bar and post. We were in complete control of proceedings and Ryan saw another long range effort blocked for a corner and a free kick comfortably saved. Ricky Spiller went closer with another free kick, which Fewell had to scramble to tip over the bar. Then, out of nothing, Sittingbourne pulled a goal back seven minutes before half time. A deep inswinging cross from Kieran Marsh would have rolled out harmlessly for a goal kick, had Mitchell not attempted to volley it clear, a volley which he mishit, the ball ricocheting off the unfortunate Russell Eldridge for an own goal. Bourne finished the half the stronger, Jon Neal shooting wide after a good run and Marsh hitting a long range shot straight at Greg. We found ourselves back on top from the second half kick off and Chris fired a thirty yarder just over three minutes after the restart. Shortly afterwards, Ricky almost reproduced the Burnham equaliser of a couple of weeks ago, albeit from the right hand side, when a mishit cross looped towards goal only for Fewell to backpedal quickly enough to tip the ball over. Ryan's first time effort from a corner, pulled back to the edge of the area, was easily saved. Steve Hafner cut in from the right, but curled a left foot shot wide. Steve then crossed for Carl to head just over the top and Carl then missed a simpler looking chance, once again heading over, this time from Mitchell's cross. All that Bourne had managed in the second half was a tame Michael Smissen header, comfortably gathered by Greg, but they were to steal an equaliser six minutes from time. A long through ball fell between Greg and the last defender, Jimmy Elford. As Greg came out, Jimmy did the right thing in attempting to clear but instead of booting the ball to safety, he tried to be cute and hook the ball over his own shoulder. The ball hit Smissen on the chest, lobbed over Greg's head and Smissen was left with a simple tap-in inside the six yard box. Having worked their way back into a game, in which they should have been well beaten, Bourne almost stole all three points in stoppage time. Smissen ran on to Neal's through ball and was denied by a well timed sliding tackle from Greg. The loose ball bounced back to Neal, who lobbed it goalwards. Jimmy got back to head away, but did so straight to Bradley Spice, whose shot was off target. And there was still time for Darren Smith to shoot just wide, before time was called. All in all, one point is better than none, I suppose, and we appear to have gotten out of the habit of losing games left right and centre. As I have stated before, one habit that we must kick, and soon, is that of conceding those two goals to every team we play. No amount of different goalkeepers is going to have an effect on that record, all the while the defenders in front of him make the sort of basic mistakes that continue to cost us. I know that Steve Lovell is not actively seeking a direct replacement for the sorely missed Tony Burt, but the three guys playing at the back at the moment just aren't collectively doing a good enough job and, for me, the weak link is Jimmy. He was having a decent season for us down the right hand side, but he has been found wanting in the last two home games and I cannot understand why Steve is persisting in playing him out of position, when there are more natural defenders watching from the bench or playing for the reserves. It doesn't seem fair on anyone, least of all on Jimmy himself, whose reputation and confidence must be taking a bit of a hammering at the moment. Kieren Startup and Russell have been playing steadily enough, but I would be tempted to give Graham Morris another run in the side, even though Simon Stickney seems to be ahead of him in the pecking order at present. |
Elsewhere
Ours was one of five draws in the eight Eastern Division matches to survive the elements on Saturday, so there was precious little movement at either end of the table. The bottom ten remain unchanged, although Chatham's sixth win in seven took them to within one more win of the top half of the table. Histon's draw closed the gap at the top to six points and they still have three games in hand on Tonbridge. Eastleigh's big win took them back into fourth, swapping places with Salisbury. We remain in sixteenth place, still eight points clear of the relegation places. Here are all of Saturday's results.
Ashford Town P v P Corby TownChatham Town 2 v 1 Newport IoW
Eastleigh 5 v 0 Dartford
Erith & Belvedere 1 v 1 Burgess Hill Town
Fisher Athletic 1 v 1 Folkestone Invicta
Fleet Town 0 v 1 King's Lynn
Hastings United 2 v 2 Sittingbourne
Histon 1 v 1 Bashley
Rothwell Town P v P Tonbridge Angels
Salisbury City 1 v 1 Banbury United
Stamford P v P Burnham
As a post script to the week's action in the Eastern Division, many of you will already be aware that Tonbridge parted company with their management team after Tuesday's defeat at home to Chatham, their third in a row. Having been asked to put up with a reduced wage budget following the withdrawal of the club's main sponsor, boss Alan Walker had agreed to stay put only until the end of December, at which point he was to review his position. Any future decision was taken out of his hands though on Wednesday when his contract was terminated. Tonbridge have put a couple of their senior players in charge for now and Walker is already back in the managerial hotseat, at Ryman League Bromley. Another boss who has been contemplating his future, is Newport's Steve Tait, after Receivers were called in by the Isle of Wight club's chairman. No-one has been paid at Newport for several weeks now and a few players decided not to make the trip to Chatham on Saturday, a few more having left the club already. There was a serious risk of Newport being unable to field a side for the game and Tait went on record as stating that he would resign if they couldn't. Obviously, that crisis was averted, but Newport are really hanging on by their fingernails at the moment and they are clearly going to struggle to see out the rest of the season.
Up in the Premier Division, Eastbourne Borough slipped to a third successive defeat, this time 1-0 at home to struggling Moor Green, the winner coming deep into stoppage time. Borough have now dropped to thirteenth place, which would put them on the edge of the new Conference South qualifying places, but they have played a few games more than some of the sides below them and their injury problems continue to hurt them. On a day when five matches were postponed, Crawley's 2-0 home win over bottom of the table Bath, took them up to second, six points behind Steve Claridge's big spending Weymouth.
In the County League, Rye & Iden United moved back into the top six courtesy of a 4-1 thrashing of Three Bridges. All of the goals came in the second half, Duncan McArthur and Nathan Godden putting Rye & Iden two up. Three Bridges pulled one back, before late goals from Scott Price and Peter Baker sealed the win. Rye & Iden remain a rather distant thirteen points behind the leaders, Chichester, who marched on after beating Selsey 6-1. Eastbourne Town stay second after a 3-2 win at Arundel, Graham Webb on target with one of the goals. Sidley United lost by the same score at home to third placed Hassocks. The visitors opened up an early two goal lead and although Wes Tate pulled one back before half time, Hassocks restored that advantage shortly after the interval. Jordan Wood's last minute strike proved merely a consolation. St Leonards' trip to Shoreham fell victim to the weather and other results contrived to push our nearest and dearest into the bottom five. Happy Christmas at The Firs then. In the second division, an early Mark Ward goal was good enough to earn Westfield a 1-0 win at home to Seaford, which took them up a place to seventh. Westfield are in action next Saturday at home to Wealden. On the same day, Rye & Iden United take on St Leonards at The Salts. Sidley United travel to Ringmer for a morning kick off on Boxing Day. I see that Gary Bowyer's latest stand-up routine was given it's first airing in the Observer this week. Evidently, the reason why St Leonards have failed so dismally in their quest for world dominance this season, is that County League officials have got a hidden agenda against the Saints when dishing out their fixtures. The absence of more than a single home game in January is evidence of the County FA's wish to drive the club out of business apparently. Bowyer also states that when he leaves The Firs for the last time, he will never again wish to have any involvement with the Sussex FA. I for one hope that day is a long time in coming. It would be a terrible loss of comedic talent.
I suspect that the game at The Salts, which was originally scheduled for Boxing Day, may well have been moved in an effort to attract some of our own supporters. Of course we are in action on Boxing Day at Burgess Hill, while our reserves visit Dartford on Saturday, so a few people may well find themselves out on a limb next weekend, myself included maybe. As for Friday, we are set to make our first ever trip to Leylands Park, for a league game in any case, although we did win 2-0 there in the early stages of the FA Cup about ten years ago. It will be interesting to see how much the place has changed, since Burgess Hill's elevation to the Dr Martens League as last year's County League champions. They have certainly adapted well to life at the higher level and Saturday's draw at Erith & Belvedere took them up to eighth place in the table and they are very much in the hunt for a Premier Division place next season at the moment. They are currently unbeaten in seven, five of which were won, including successive 5-2 home wins over Eastleigh and Corby. In Steve Harper and Nick Sullivan, they have two of the top scorers in the division and, indeed, they were the goalscorers when Burgess Hill won 2-1 at The Pilot Field way back in August. It would appear that we are going to be in for a tough afternoon then, but Christmas will be made all the happier by another decent performance and three points to go with it. I still have high hopes of getting to the game myself and the report should be online on Sunday, as usual. There is a full programme of fixtures in the Eastern Division over Christmas, but four of them are on the Saturday, so I will delay my notes by twenty-four hours to bring you up to speed with all the news, including details of the reserve game and that big local derby at The Salts. I am going to give my keyboard a rest for the next few days, unless anything earth-shatteringly important occurs, so there will be no midweek report this week. I will end, therefore, by using this opportunity to wish all readers a very merry Christmas.
Sean Adams
26/12/03 Burgess Hill (3) 6 Hastings United (1) 2
Att: 351
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Christmas. Love it or loathe it, you'd be mad not to loathe it. Most especially if you were an away supporter at Leylands Park on Boxing Day. Every now and then, I lull myself into believing that, one day, we are going to give someone a damn good hiding and it will really kick start our season. Then I remember that we have no defence worthy of the name and reality bites once again. It certainly bit bloody hard in West Sussex on Friday where we to suffer our third 6-2 reverse of the season, all of which I have witnessed, and bring, to a very abrupt halt, our six match unbeaten run. For the seventh game running, we found the net on at least two occasions, but for the thirteenth time in fourteen games, we conceded at least two as well and I know that I keep going on about it, but a degree in rocket science is not required to decipher where the main problem lies. Steve Lovell may not have put a top quality central defender on his Christmas wish list, but I should imagine that our supporters may well have done. There were times at Burgess Hill, when I honestly wondered if I might not be able to do a better job myself, except that there may not be a claret and blue shirt big enough to fit my festive waistline. It's strange how many things haven't happened since the Ashford game on 25 October. On this occasion, we saw our first unchanged starting line-up since that date, as Ryan Peters managed to shrug off the ankle injury he collected in the Sittingbourne game, which was threatening to keep him out once again. The only change in the sixteen man squad, in fact, was a curious one, as an unfit Charlie Belcher was named as a substitute, instead of Scott Hayhoe, despite the fact that he couldn't possibly have made an appearance, because of his injury. Stranger still, when you consider that Scott had been the first, and the only one of the substitutes to see any action last Saturday. A settled side then, togetherness and team spirit to the fore, a recipe for success you would have thought. Then we kicked off. We have developed an annoying knack of giving the opposition an early goal of late and Boxing Day was to be no exception. Despite having had to reorganise, after left winger, Matt Simpson, limped off in the first minute, our hosts went a goal up in the third minute when Steve Harper crossed from the left to the near post for strike partner, Nicky Sullivan, to turn and fire a right foot shot across Greg into the back of the net. We responded in superb fashion and created the next seven goalscoring opportunities. Ryan hit a weak shot wide from Mylie's cross. Mitchell's dangerous cross was well gathered by Pat Gannon. Haffy's quick free kick took a wicked bounce and was spilled by Gannon, but no-one was quick enough to follow it up. Haffy's shot from a corner hit Mylie and deflected wide, but those two then combined for our seventeenth minute equaliser. Haffy's free kick from the right met by Mylie's bullet header from close range. We were well worth the goal and then continued to press. Mylie's quick free kick released Mitchell, whose cross shot was saved and another Mylie free kick was glanced on by Monster and Carl Rook's instinctive shot on the half volley clipped the outside of the post with Gannon well beaten. Suddenly, against the run of play, the home side retook the lead when Harper left three defenders standing in idle admiration and picked his spot low to Greg's right. That after twenty-nine minutes, and after a quiet spell, in which Steve Lovell was invited to watch the rest of the game from the other side of the barrier by referee, Andy Legg, presumably after some choice words to the assistant ref, Burgess Hill went 3-1 up when Julian Curnow's long free kick was met by an excellent looping header by Ben Andrews, giving Greg no chance. Almost immediately, back up the other end, Russell's cross was headed up in the air by a defender, but with Gannon stranded, Carl managed to miss an open goal from inside the six yard box. It was the first of two defining moments in the game. Having murdered them 1-3 in the first half, confidence remained high that we could come back as the second half got underway and we would soon have a golden chance to start that fightback. Seven minutes had elapsed when Monster won possession down the right and crossed towards Carl, who appeared to be held back as he went for the header. Mr Legg thought so too and awarded a penalty, booking the offender. The usually so reliable Mylie stepped up, but sent the spot kick into orbit and within a quarter of an hour, we were kicking off for the seventh time in the game. Just before the hour mark, Steve Dallaway came off the bench and scored with his first touch. Nick Bridle's right wing cross was well flicked on by Sullivan and Dallaway nipped in front of Mitchell to score. Five minutes later, Sullivan ghosted past Jimmy's weak challenge and crossed for Harper to bundle home the fifth and only four more minutes had gone by when Greg called for Harper's cross, only to stand motionless as Sullivan headed the easiest goal of his life. I will give Greg the benefit of a very small amount of doubt and suggest that the ball got caught in the wind, but it was still an embarrassing moment on what had become a pretty grim afternoon. Steve made one of those legendary triple substitutions to give Ian Young, Danny Ellis and Simon Stickney a run and I think that it was Ian who won us our second penalty of the game with a quarter of an hour left, when he was pulled back as he ran in on goal. In fact, it looked as though the ball had run through for Carl whose shot was well saved by Gannon, but Mr Legg gave the penalty in any case, once again booking the offender, and Ricky became our fourth successful penalty taker of the season. The closing stages were rather tedious. I dare say that they were happy to settle for 6-2 and we failed to create anything further. It seems incredible to me that we lost this game at all, let alone by such a margin. If my notes are correct, Burgess Hill had just six goalscoring chances in the game and yet, they scored every time. If that doesn't say something about the quality of our defending, I don't know what does. You will often hear managers say that the goals that their team has let in were avoidable and down to poor defending and I usually take such comments with a pinch of salt. Having watched us today though, not one of the six that we let in were unavoidable. Poor marking for the first. Woeful tackling for the second. Allowing a free header for the third. Ball watching for the fourth. More dreadful tackling for the fifth. And a goalkeeping gaffe for the sixth. While all that was going on, we played some decent passing football in midfield, were a constant handful up front and looked especially dangerous from free kicks and set pieces in general. At least when we got hammered at Eastleigh, we were beaten by a superior passing outfit and were lucky not to concede more. Against Folkestone, the severity of the defeat owed more to an inexperienced line-up, who tired in the second half. Burgess Hill were a hardworking side, with two very good strikers in Harper and Sullivan, but they were average in every other area and we exposed their weaknesses time and again. On another day, Mylie's penalty goes in to make it 3-2, individual errors are avoided, heads don't drop and maybe, just maybe, we get a draw. Sadly though, the reality was rather less palatable and perhaps we should just quickly draw a line under this one and move on. After all, it has been almost two months since we last suffered such a result, but I cannot recall a season, in which we suffered so many heavy defeats. It is a wonder that the lads have managed to stave off feelings of utter demoralisation before now and Steve has got a big job on his hands to pick them up for New Year's Day. By the way, I am not exactly brilliantly informed about the Southern League's rules and regulations, but I thought that their ground grading requirements called for the provision of a certain amount of seating and covered accommodation before teams are allowed to join the league. Leylands Park did not seem to have changed all that much since we were there ten years or so ago. One modest stand, albeit at ground level, which contained much of the home support, and nothing else to protect you from the considerable elements. They do have a nice clubhouse, but it is surrounded by a series of portacabins. It all looks rather shabby, I'm afraid and I know that The Pilot Field is no Old Trafford, but come on. The pitch has a certain lean to it as well and didn't look any more difficult or dangerous to play good football on that our's did in August, when Lewis Johnson suffered his broken leg. Just an observation and there are probably a few sour grapes talking, but there you go. Good luck to Burgess Hill though, who are now unbeaten in eight and continue to knock on the door of the top six, although whether promotion to the Premier is a serious aim, I know not. |
Elsewhere
Obviously, by tradition, the holiday period sees a clutch of local derbies, which often tend to produce some vaguely odd results. Here are the scores from the Christmas fixtures.
Banbury United 1 v 0 Rothwell TownBashley 2 v 4 Salisbury City
Burgess Hill Town 6 v 2 Hastings United
Corby Town 3 v 3 Histon
Folkestone Invicta 3 v 1 Ashford Town
King's Lynn 3 v 1 Stamford
Sittingbourne 0 v 0 Chatham Town
Burnham 3 v 0 Fleet Town
Dartford 1 v 3 Erith & Belvedere
Newport IoW 0 v 3 Eastleigh
Tonbridge Angels 2 v 2 Fisher Athletic
Perhaps the game of the day on Friday was at The Rockingham Triangle where struggling Corby scored three in six first half minutes to lead promotion chasing Histon, only for the visitors to fight back after the interval, finally equalising four minutes from time. Histon are still unbeaten, but their second draw in a row allowed King's Lynn to hurdle them up into second place after their comfortable win over Stamford in front of the best crowd of the day, 983 at The Walks. There were 825 at The Westbourne Stadium to see Adam Flanagan set Folkestone on their way to victory over Ashford. Salisbury stayed fourth after coming from behind to win well at Bashley. Banbury went fifth after beating bottom club Rothwell and in form Sittingbourne and Chatham failed to produce a goal at Central Park. Despite our loss, we still found ourselves three points further ahead of Burnham, who fell foul of that ineligible player rule and were stripped of the spoils of their victory at King's Lynn in October. They got the points back on Saturday though, as three first half goals saw them past Fleet for their first win since that ultimately ill fated trip to Norfolk. Dartford slipped to their sixth loss in a row, despite leading at half time against Erith & Belvedere, who are now out of the drop zone. Tonbridge failed to arrest their winless run, throwing away a two goal lead at home to Fisher as they conceded own goals in the eighty-ninth and ninetieth minutes. Eastleigh moved back into fifth after an easy win on the Isle of Wight.
The last week has seen more turmoil for crisis torn Newport. Having managed to fulfil last Saturday's fixture at Chatham, albeit they had a squad of only eleven players and had one of them sent off in the first half, Steve Tait decided to resign as manager on the way home. Their Receivers announced this week that they had failed to find anyone willing to take the club on as a going concern and are now preparing to sell off the club's assets, including the ground don't forget, and have released all the players from their contracts. The 'Save Newport Action Group' has been established for a few weeks and succeeded in collecting enough money to ensure that the Eastleigh game went ahead, with some members of the squad continuing to play for nothing. The future still looks bleak for the Islanders though, as even non-league philanthropist, Victor Gladwish, has decided not to assist them.
Gladwish, by the way, has decided that the latest organisation to benefit from his generous sponsorship will be the Southern League itself. One condition of him taking over the £100K per year deal though, will be that the Southern League writes to all Ryman League clubs, offering them the opportunity to switch leagues, in an effort to ensure that the restructuring of the non-league game can proceed at the end of this season, as planned. As it stands, the Ryman League are still refusing to ratify the proposal of a new Conference South and North, ranking between the present Conference and the existing three feeder leagues; the Dr Martens, Unibond and Ryman. I have no doubt that, if the Ryman believe that they can prevent the restructuring by taking legal action, then Victor Gladwish may be prevented in a similar fashion. Money is not likely to be a serious issue as far as Gladwish is concerned though, and the solicitors may be in for a healthy start to 2004.
Up in the Premier Division on Boxing Day, Eastbourne made it just one win in nine, going down 2-0 at Dover. The big story of the day though, was Weymouth's 8-0 destruction of Dorchester, Steve Claridge scoring one of two hattricks in that total, in front of an incredible 3,734 attendance. At least someone had a worse Boxing Day than us then. The win took Weymouth eight points clear at the top. Hinckley went second after their 1-1 draw with third placed Nuneaton. 2,013 watched that one and there were 1,974 at the Stafford versus Hednesford game and 1,103 at The Crabble. On Saturday, Crawley regained second place, closing the gap to six points once again, after a 3-1 win at Havant & Waterlooville.
The draw for the fourth round of the Dr Martens League Cup has been made with the ties due to be played in the week commencing 19 January. The outstanding third round games should be settled in the first week of the new year. The draw hasn't been particularly kind to the two Eastern Division sides still left in the competition, Eastleigh and Folkestone both having been handed away ties against Premier Division opponents. Here is the full draw.
Cambridge City v Nuneaton BoroughCrawley Town v Welling United or Eastbourne Borough
Dorchester Town v Eastleigh
Dover Athletic v Folkestone Invicta
Hinckley United v Hednesford Town
Tiverton Town v Newport County or Chippenham Town
Weymouth v Bath City
Worcester City v Moor Green
Not wishing to get wet at two County League grounds in as many days, I decided to give the big local derby at The Salts a miss on Saturday. 230 were in attendance though to see Rye & Iden United gain ample revenge for their Hastings Senior Cup defeat in September, with a thumping 4-1 win over St Leonards. James Sims opened the scoring for the visitors after twenty-four minutes, his first goal since moving up the road from The Pilot Field, but Shaun Loft levelled before the break and second half goals from Peter Baker, a Scott Price penalty and Kym Monroe completed a handsome win. The victory took Rye & Iden up to fifth in the table, but they remain a distant thirteen points behind leaders Chichester, who secured an astonishing 8-1 win at Sidlesham. Eastbourne Town stayed second, although they don't play until Sunday at Hailsham. St Leonards, now without a win in six, remained five places off the bottom, three below Sidley United, who lost 1-0. to a very early goal at Ringmer on Friday. In Division Two, Westfield suffered a disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Wealden, the only goal arriving with ten minutes left.
It is the early hours of Sunday morning as I write these notes and, at this point, neither the Kent League website nor our own Newsline have been updated with the result of Saturday's reserve team game away to Dartford in the second round of the Division One/Two League Cup. I dare say that the score will be in Sunday's Non-League Paper, but I will not be able to get any details of the game until Monday so I will leave them on the Guestbook then.
So, now that Christmas is over and done with, we move on to the New Year fixtures. On the Bank Holiday itself, we entertain Tonbridge Angels and follow that up with a trip to the north of Kent to take on Dartford at Gravesend's Stonebridge Road ground on the Saturday. Tonbridge, of course, have led the way in the league table pretty much since day one when they embarked on an incredible seventeen match unbeaten run. Since losing game number eighteen at King's Lynn though, and their main sponsor to boot, the wheels have started to come off and three defeats in a row gave heart to the chasing sides. Manager Alan Walker may have been fired, but the team remains essentially intact, so it is bound to be a difficult game for us and we never seem to so well on Bank Holidays, in my experience. We did do the double over the Angels during our championship winning year two seasons ago. An early season 5-1 victory at Longmead was followed by a 3-0 win in the return match at The Pilot Field and I'm sure that we would all settle for a repeat of either scoreline on Thursday. The last time we played at Dartford was in April 2002 when we could have clinched the title with a win. Full of confidence, on the back of a thirteen game unbeaten run in the league, we were to be well beaten 3-1 and a bad evening was made worse by a late red card for a certain Mr McArthur. Two months previously, we had beaten the Darts 1-0 in a dire match at home, which had been the second game of that great run that took us to the title. Back on 20 September, Dartford left The Pilot Field with three points, three goals and a clean sheet, as we endured one of those early season bad days at the office. That was only the Darts' second win of the season, but it failed to inspire them to greater things and they have lost their last six with an aggregate scoreline of 23-3. Depending on what happens on Thursday (Dartford are away to Fisher), a win could take us above them in the table, but our results at Stonebridge Road haven't been anything to write home about in recent years, so I shouldn't get too carried away I guess. I definitely plan to be at The Pilot Field on New Year's Day, but I am not too sure about the Saturday game as well. I may have to settle for the reserves game at home to Rock-a-Nore in the third round of the Hastings Intermediate Cup instead. When I have gathered all of my notes together, a king-size report should be on-line on Sunday, lest I get a chance to compile something separate for New Year's Day.
Sean Adams