Archive
Dr Martens League Eastern Division 1999-00
2/10/99 Dulwich Hamlet (1) 2 Hastings Town (0) 1 [FA Cup 3q]
DULWICH DUMP TOWN
Ball 90
Att:- 431
Yet another failure to make decent progress in the FA Cup - perhaps that’s why it’s called "FA" - cos that just about sums up our record in that competition.
Overall, Dulwich deserve the win because, simply, they cause more problems in our box than we do in theirs. But, it’s the width of the post that denies us a replay when Smudger hits an upright deep in injury time.
Dulwich go ahead late in the first half from a well struck free kick. But - BUT - it’s us who should’ve had a free kick after Smudger gets flattened on the edge of our box - seconds later, the referee’s awarding them one for something that looks much the same. Talk about rubbing it in - when they score.
We dominate the second half and it’s a real blow when Dulwich break upfield after a long spell under the cosh, and get their second. We can’t believe it. To be fair, as we push up, they should have at least one more but it gets interesting when Matt [Ball] gets one back in the 90th minute.
Would be poetic justice if Smudger’s late effort had gone in. The corner from which he went so close should’ve been a goal kick - but that would’ve made up for that first half injustice which, at the end of a reasonable game, was what divided the sides.
Simon Stoddart
League UpdateWe are building up a backlog of games - and that could be made worse if something can’t be arranged for the 16th - cos Witney who are due at the Pilot Field then, won their FA Cup tie today and will be otherwise engaged. Perhaps, Newport can come over - save them a mid week trip? We drop to 8th - Ashford overhaul us after stuffing Fleet 4-0. FA Cup defeat is always a disappointment - but getting out of the Eastern Division is the top priority. Fans ForumThere will be a fan's forum on Monday 4th October at the clubhouse (8pm). The bar is open from 7:30pm. Nigel Jones, Dean White and Mark Leaney will be there to answer your questions. |
9/10/99 Oxford City (0) 2 Hastings Town (0) 0 [FA Trophy 1st round]
FA TROPHY MISERY
Att:- 136
Er, free to "concentrate on the league" after a thoroughly depressing afternoon - especially the second half.
First half’s ok, pretty poor game but we probably shade it with Jonesie hitting a post in a goal mouth scramble - ball rolls agonizingly along the goal line but there’s nobody on hand to tap it in. No Smudger, Yatesie or Kess but the lads who come in seem to do ok.
City go ahead early in the second half - Matt Ball’s outpaced down the right, good cross goes in and they go 1-0 up from close in. No chance for Rob Wylie standing in for Tony Kessel. Simmo goes inches wide with an angled drive but that’s our only half decent attempt of the game and City make it safe when Rob’s caught in no man’s land and lobbed for the second goal. He makes amends just afterwards with a superb one handed save from a close range effort.
Poor, poor performance - we were due one, and here it was. Believe me, City were nothing special - we were just awful. Frank - one way -.exchange of views (Deano’s views) in the dressing room afterwards. It’s some time before the lads appear in the bar.
Simon Stoddart
DM Eastern DivisionWe drop to 9th in the table after today’s results - and have as many as four games in hand on some sides already. Folkestone losing at VS Rugby does us no harm, and Ashford drawing 1-1 with Newport is another good result - but Witney win at Wisbech. Efforts to arrange a DME game for next Saturday have failed - Fleet who have no game have refused to come to us - there’s nobody else we can play. We should’ve been playing Witney but they’re still involved in the FA Cup. We are looking at a two month period - 14 Sept to 13 Nov - in which there will be ONE home league fixture - that’s Sittingbourne on Oct 26. |
23/10/99 Baldock Town (0) 0 Hastings Town (0) 1
P.Jones 85
Att:- 116
Yes! One of those games that the longer it goes on, the more you can see the outplayed opposition sneaking the three points. Town don’t play all that well but Baldock - possibly suffering FA Cup exit blues after a replay defeat by Enfield - are very poor. It’s only bad finishing that sees us still at 0-0 at half time.
Adam Wheeler, the Baldock keeper, pulls of some great saves in the second half as Town step it up a gear but that goal will not come. Unbelievable ping pong like sequence in their box half way through the second half - how we don’t score is just- well, like it says, unbelievable. And we go perilously close to going behind seconds after that when Baldock break away and a cross gets planted against one of Tony Kessel’s posts.
Most improved player of the second half is Paul Jones who has a nightmare opening 45 which includes the miss of the season - but then produces a much better second period which he wraps up wuth the only goal of the game after a Matt Ball header is scrambled off the line.
Bally did think he might be able to claim the goal but wasn’t prepared to bet his armload of beer on the bus afterwards - so, Jonesie, it’s your goal.
Simon Stoddart
26/10/99 Hastings Town (1) 3 Sittingbourne (2) 3
D.Jones 8, Simmonds 53, T.White 54
Att:- 305
Started off brightly and confidently against our 'bogey' side and after 8 minutes Duncan Jones whipped in a low and powerful shot/cross from just inside the box which went through a defender's legs, and into the back of the net. Not so impressed was James Creed our ex-goalie who's now plying his trade for the brickies. Memories of 90/91 5-0 stuffing of Hythe United (a previous exorcism of a bogey team) came back... and were soon vanquished when Sittingbourne equalised on 28 minutes. They took the lead with a sublime goal on 41 minutes when a good run into our box was matched with strong strike. This is despite Paul Jones ripping their left flank to pieces through most of the half.
Second half a few Hastings free kicks wasted the whites settled down again. Good vision from Steve Smith running down the right picked out Paul Jones in the box who cut it back to Simmo who manages to score through a crowd on 53. The next Hastings attack saw Terry White score his first non-penalty of the season (making nine in total). Hastings were flying. A few splashes of yellow to the Brickies as they became increasingly frustrated. Some excellent saves by both keepers. However a well-planned free kick beat the wall (indirectly from a square ball) and Kessell to level the match on 68 minutes. Five minutes to go and Creedy makes a fine one-handed save from a White free kick, and with one minute to go Duncan Jones misses a real sitter on the line. Slightly dissapointing that we couldn't quite get our first win in 12 meetings. All in all an excellent advert for the non-league game.
KH
30/10/99 Fleet Town (2) 2 Hastings Town (0) 3
P.Jones 63, White 66, D.Jones 83
Att:- 66
The day couldn't have started off worse in terms of preparation when it took us nearly two hours just to get to Pembury thanks to some Highways Agency related shambles which saw us crawl from Lamberhurst to Pembury at where just short of the bypass we eventually came across two guys with STOP/GO boards either side of some bloody machine which had reduced the A21 to even more of a cock up than it normally is. PC Plod? Nowhere to be seen.
We eventually got to Fleet at 2.35 - would you believe that the DM League is quite likely to fine us for the late arrival - where the referee insisted on a 3.00 kick off. It was our old mate Mr Taylor of St Albans who had presided over our shambolic display at Dartford - and we promptly tried to emulate that performance against rock bottom Fleet who - quite deservedly - went in 2-0 up at half time.
Mix up between Kess and his defence for the first and a goal mouth scramble for the second which the linesman indicated had crossed the line. The Fleet keeper had nothing to do in that opening spell - not a thing. We were appalling - it was raining hard and the ground was the worst we'd seen since early 92 when we were at Canterbury.
Could Deano work half time wonders? The team came out in a far more purposeful frame of mind and while we still looked shaky at the back, we at least looked more likely to score. Very frustrating at first - Paul Jones hit a post, Terry planted a free kick onto the bar, it rained even harder and it looked very depressing. But Jonesie (P) got us back into it on 63 minutes and 3 minutes later we were level after Terry put a free kick round the wall into the bottom corner. After that it was only Dave Smalley in the Fleet goal who kept Town out as they piled on the pressure down that sloping hill of a pitch.
81 minutes gone and Duncan Jones got the winner after a well worked move on a bog of a pitch which saw him break down through the centre of the Fleet defence. Should've been 4-2 but Terry put a penalty against the bar in injury time - but it didn't matter. We'd got out of jail with a bloody good second half performance in awful conditions - the boys deserved the three points which took us up to 7th - 10 points behind Folkestone and Ashford with 3 and 5 games in hand respectively.
Simon Stoddart