Last Update: 10th January 2004
Midweek RoundupFirst 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
KEEP THE FAITHAtt: 264
ElsewhereWhilst 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
Midweek RoundupAll 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
PENALTY MANIAAtt: 117
ElsewhereAlthough 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
Midweek RoundupAnother 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
STOLENAtt: 232
ElsewhereOurs 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
Att: 351
ElsewhereObviously, 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
|