Away at Hastings

[benchsitter]

After much umming and ahing it would appear the ressie game away at Hastings is on today - roadtrip!

[benchsitter]

Difficult to put a squad together for this fixture for various reasons, so credit to the 12 players who actually made the trip. We should have come back with a deserved 3 points , however, once again, we were winning 3-2 with 7 mins to play and managed to lose 4-3 to two soft late goals
The game started with Hastings having the better of the ball, although it was obvious from early on that they liked to put the ball long rather than pass it around, but after 16 mins Jon Burch managed one of his familiar near post goals from close in that leave you wondering how the ball actually went in. Against the general run of play at that point, and as if to prove the point within 2 mins the scores were level when Hastings got to the byeline a scored from the cut back ball.
The rest of the half was fairly even but we played the better football but neither side created enough shots on goal to move the score along, so 1-1 at halftime.
The second half started the same as the first with them playing long ball and us playing passing football, but after 59 mins their striker made a good diagonal run through our defence and their midfielder picked him out and he lobbed Jordan in goal as he advanced to make it 2-1. We upped our game at this stage and were the stronger team from this point on with our passes being better judged and after 72 mins Kyle Wilkie, who was a threat all afternoon, got to their byeline and cut the ball back low and hard across their 6 yard box and their defender put it in his own goal with Jon standing behind him for a tap in. 2-2
6 mins later and Kyle was again the provider - from his corner the ball fell to Jay Warden who struck the ball in from 12 yards to make it 3-2. At this stage Hastings looked beaten and our play was good, with Jon and Kyle both making life very difficult for their defence and only a last desperate perfectly timed tackle in the penalty prevented Jon from getting another, but with 6 mins left on the clock Hastings had a low scuffed shot in a crowded penalty area and somehow it squeezed in over Jordan's arm as he dived - it it had been well struck he would have saved it!
So, 3-3 and all we had to do was be sensible to at least get a well earned point, but in the last minute (again) instead of slowing things down and letting the ball go out of play we kept it in and from the resultant kick upfield Hastings came forward and scored Game over 4-3.
Although, naivity again cost us there were real positives in this game for new manager Antonio to be pleased with, it was a real team effort and with only 12 players everyone had to work their socks off after a long layoff with no games. Our one sub was used due to injury to Messy rather than tactically, and only having the one restricted the chance to change things, so it wasn't easy. Very strong performances in particular from Jon, Kyle, Jay and debutant Adam, but overall it was a good team effort - just the wrong outcome.