Let's hope that this game will go on after the last matches being called off. On their website it is still uncertain:
Three game at Southwood on Boxing Day?!? With the recent diabolical weather (apparently) giving way to a couple of drier, settled days, the Rams look forward to welcoming Hastings to Southwood for this Ryman League fixture (and should a pitch inspection be required, you will hear about it on here first).
The current number 9 of the table grab only 2 points of their last 3 games. They have 2 strikers who are able to score easily : James Everitt with 11 and Ian Pulman with 8 league goals.
Hopefully John Maggs team will bring 3 points back after a 70 mile journey !
According to Ramsgate website there is a 9am pitch inspection, but looks like the game will be on, providing they are fortunate enough to have a sane official! Woot Woot!
Game definitely ON - pitch and ground inspection completed, confirmed online by Ramsgate's media officer.
Time to make sandwiches, iron scarf and look forward to three points - 3-1 Hastings, 65 U's in attendance and defeats for Leatherhead and Peacehaven to round off a perfect Christmas!
Can't get to the game but will be with you all in spirit. Hope we have a full squad and think 3-0 to Hastings with Ken, Trevor and Tim scoring. 57 Hastings supporters driving on the lads.
getting the results to hammerfan on football webpages what the hells going on sure we have turned upnot what any one whants to hear,need the second half of the season to start with a bang,but not in this way.
Looks like someone was celebrating Xmas too hard. John and Terry need to sort things out at the double. I guess this is when we see what JM is made of.
Sorry, but I am not suprised. This has been on the cards all season. We have needed a left back all season but not got one. We lose Hare at right back and replace him with Henson, who was not good enough before his injury as anyone who watched him would know. Too many poor signings and a lack of transfer activity in areas needed. I think this is more than just a bad day at the office.
Agree with John areas that needed strengthening when Maggs arrived are still week. we only just got mccreadie a good signingbut the team / squad is all unbalanced. The side is not much different to when Maggs arrived. I was for him getting job but he been a disappointment. he said we were going to win by a big score against Walton but feel in lot of game we been lucky to win and could easy have lost by a few and today that happened. the score did not flatter Ramsgate it could have been double that. our players look lethargic and must take some blame but if the discipline was better from manager then maybe players would not have overdone christmas celebration. does not say much aboput how they care for club or the manager.
JohnW is correct this is more than bad day at office and dont think we will get promoted as we can not get players in and Maggs contacts are no better than other managers that have been at PF and Maggs has not got message to players to look after themself over Christmas. New year day fixture could be a disaster on today show. be glad to get home what a waste of a day.
I sympathise with those who went to Ramsgate. I wasn't at the game so can't judge the specifics of this performance, but I certainly agree with others with the generality that our points total and league position have flattered us thus far. There have been very very few games we have dominated and we have not been scoring enough goals. If we now start leaking goals then things will not look good at all for the automatic promotion spot where 90 points (or maybe more) will surely be required.
That said, we should not be too despondent and least of all allow ourselves to get into panic mode. Unless we utterly blow up we will make the play-offs (which I would have settled for at the start of the season). With two or three good signings and everyone pulling together we should be in contention for better.
Lets hope we have a game on Saturday and can put this behind us.
We know what JM is made of, he's been there and done it on numerous occasions. We looked really good against Margate, Maidstone and Walton & Hersham. For the first 15 minutes today we were in total control and could have been leading 2-0. We then conceded three times in no time at all and never looked like getting back into it.
Too may players obviously overdoing it on Christmas day, even Judge, Kelly and Adams looked well of the pace. Andy why is it these days, not only with us, that players are "unavailable"? Not good enough, if they can't commit in a professional way let them move on, that County League attitude.
It was grim to say the least especially as a lot of fans made a big effort to get out there on Boxing Day....
Said it before the match but we really miss what Kenny brings to the side when he's out, he keeps the play in their half so much more as a release ball...
Nothing was good today at all except josh who prob kept the score down....
-- Edited by Dan on Thursday 26th of December 2013 08:40:55 PM
Well I can't actually recall a 5-0 stuffing in last season's disastrous relegation campaign against significantly stronger opponents....so, while not totally writing us off for the season, it's a pretty clear indication how poor we were today and just how much we need to improve if we are to go up and STAY up !
Others have said that this hasn't come as a great surprise and I must agree. We have won far too many games by scraping by in games we have actually been second best in. We have relied on others missing chances and then nicking a win by the odd goal. I think it was inevitable that at some time an opponent was going to take those chances and we'd be on the end of a stuffing. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that it's taken this long to happen.
Let's hope this isn't the beginning of the end of our season, rather that it is a wake up call and we can make the necessary improvements and get things back on track for a successful campaign.
As others have said, how we now react to this performance and the result in the next couple of games will be very important. Don't think I can face another miserable Winter and Spring like last season.
Had a Christmas dinner with my parents and could not believe what i saw on my mobile: within 25 minutes 3-0 behind.....it was a total off-day and let's hope ( although others believe it was just going to happen at some stage ) that the team will bounce back not alone for themselves but more for club and supporters ( especially for those who traveled today to Ramsgate ) on Saturday !
The players didn't even seem enthusiastic on the coach today, let's remember we did have to travel 70 miles today can't recall another team having to do this, no excuses really but it's an off day let's just go batter Burgess hill. To be fair if I was a player on boarder of team not getting time doubt I wanna travel to ramsgate for no game time.
First of all i would like to thank the management and players for wasting my time and money yesterday thank you.
Apart from the first 10 mins when we should have been 2 up the players did not look interested and were out run all over the pitch. The defence,if you can call it that went walk about along with the midfield.
This display was worse than the Merstham game and reminded me of the relegation day at East Thurrock last season when nobody could be bothered and all heart had gone out of the team.
Mccreadie did not look fit and Sam Adams, well not sure what has gone wrong there. A shadow of the player I saw at Herne Bay earlier this season. Two players unavailable yesterday well why they have known since July about this game sorry but i just don't get it.
If anybody thinks we will win the league then they should seek medical help now.
I honestly think we would have had more strength up front yesterday with Dale Winton and Alan Carr leading the line.
COME ON BOYS PROVE ME WRONG TOMORROW!
-- Edited by Barry on Friday 27th of December 2013 08:47:47 AM
Agree with all that's been said and continue to be left confused by some of the off field decisions being made. Read today that we have released Slocombe back to Tonbridge. Why?? Think Charlie has done ok at right back for us and is twice the player Henson is. And can anyone tell me why Pachero is not at left back? Played there for title winning Whitehawk last year, signed as a left back, but not started a league game there. Gilbert is no better than what we have had and desperately lacks pace. Was there no chance of signing Jirbandy, who has gone to Lewes? Irish would have been more than capable of slotting in at right back. But isn't everyone stating the obvious. Why have we not signed any full backs?
Luckily didn't go yesterday, had other things on. But John we have signed a fb but manager wont play him. Question is who signs and brings players to club manager or chairman. Do they get on ? If not we are in trouble as a club where a chairman and manager don't get on rarely succeeds.
Wouldnt read too much into this defeat....Ramsgate have some useful players and will be challenging for a play off place at the end of the season....folkestone are the form team at the moment and guess a play off final against them could be on the cards....however the next 2 home games are massive where nothing less than 6 points can be expected if we are going to challenge for automatic promotion..
On another note i see josh hare was on the bench for gillingham away to tranmere the other night as well as george howard....ian daly playing for a dominant dulwich hamlet team....zac attwood knocking them in for maidstone in front of 2000 plus crowd....it appears that players perform better once they have moved on....just an observation.
If I were in charge the players would be out this morning helping Simon clear the pitch for tomorrow...
No excuse for not turning up at all regardless of the time of year - I ran a lap of the half marathon course on Christmas Eve into the wind along the seafront, 5 miles on Christmas day and 5 miles yesterday - and I didn't get paid for it...
The whole thing, in my opinion, swings back around to the club lacking a real vision of where we are going. I guess being the only Yeovil Town and Hastings United fan in the world helps. The two clubs, when I started supporting them in 1999 (I didn't enjoy football before then) were basically one league apart. Both getting the same gates-ish. Both in towns which were seen as 'too difficult for players to travel to'.
It comes down to us needing to own our own ground. Not a small step from one part-time league to another. It makes no difference to the club if we're in the Ryman or the Ryman South. Yes, we need to get back into the Ryman league, but ultimately we also need to start thinking about becoming a full time club, if we ever want to get anywhere. If the chairman can't make this happen, then he should step aside and help us find someone who can.
We need a proper, 10 year vision. I know we had it at Yeovil in 1999 - and it was to become a Division 2 club by 2009 and knocking on the door of Division 1 by 2014. We did it this year, a year early and are competing with a staff and playing budget of just £1 million a year, with a ground with a capacity of 9000. No training facilities, we borrow them from the local private school.
At the moment, in 10 years time we're going to be rooted to the bottom half of the Ryman League, or somewhere near the top of the Ryman South.
Incidentally, it's not all rosy at Yeovil - the main problem being the six miles between the train station and the ground... Here is the latest transport solution used by Reading earlier this year...
I think Glenn has made a point; a vision and maybe more commitment is the lifeline for the club.When i see that volunteers are making so much effort then it not too much asking that from players, staff and board !
Well said Glenn agree with all you say. We currently have a club that the chairman runs for his occupation and that will always come first. Have heard a few rumblings recently so the next bit of turmoil is waiting just around the bend.
Until the person in charge of the club gets everybody on board including the council then we will remain routed in the lower leagues of non league football. There is no clear plan and will not be under him.
The rest of it has been said many times on this forum.
When i visit all the other clubs i am amazed how much fund raising goes on and how many people volunteer their services. My hat is raised to our volunteers for their stirling work but we are missing out because there are many other supporters who would help out but not under this chairman.
Yesterday i heard a rumour that the Under21's will be done away with next year so any young talent we have will sign for other clubs. How is this moving the club forward.
With current set up i fail to see how the club can move on.
-- Edited by Barry on Friday 27th of December 2013 11:50:39 AM
I must admit, one of my major issues at Yeovil was that we used to have a fantastic youth development set-up, but it has actually now become entirely unsustainable financially, and at the start of this season we packed it up for good. In a way, we became a victim of our own success there - we rose so quickly that many of the players who we developed and were good for Championship level wanted to make the jump quicker (Chris Weale being a perfect example); as well as losing our better players year-on-year for clubs who could offer bigger salaries at the time - Michael McIndoe after we got promoted from the conference, Chris Cohen & Aaron Davies who both went to Forest for £1.2 million after we signed them from nowhere.
The difference is that we had a number of seasons at conference level where we solidified ourselves as the top half of the table, went full-time with no real further investment from the chairman (who, while wealthy, is not one of these foreign owners). Leading up in the 10 years before we went full time, the old Huish was sold to Tesco for development, who then built a new ground - which actually very nearly bankrupted the club; and led to the only relegation ever suffered - into the equivilent of the Conference South today.
We are in the 'fortunate' position that we are in a crap enough league where we could, actually, play our U21s in the first squad and if they're pulling in the right direction the results would probably not be that badly effected. If we can keep an U21 squad together, for five+ years, on an apprentice contract basis, it would be better than what we currently have.
The club accounts are public, I'm sure you all know how much cash surplus we're sitting on, and don't need me to preach that it was more than we had at Yeovil when we promoted from the conference...
-- Edited by glenn10 on Friday 27th of December 2013 12:08:28 PM
Barry can you enlighten us with some details of the rumblings that will lead to the next turmoil. It is surly better to have things out in the open than rumours and rumblings that can only destabilise the club and demoralise the players and football management.
I am keeping it to myself for now to see if the club mention anything about it and other things I have heard mean we are far from a settled club.
We need change at the highest level and fast, a number of regular supporters have said to me they are really thinking about not attending anymore next season as we just going nowhere.
This chairman has not improved us we are playing at the same level we were when he came to the club. The FA Cup was a complete fluke due to the lucky draw we had.
As you may know I am very lucky to be able to attend all the games but driving home last night I thought is there really any point carrying on.
I thought Maggs was a good appointment but from what i have heard on how expensive he is i dont think club is getting value. Powelll say we know what he made of but apart from Dolan and Mccreadie who else has he brought in, all other players were here at start of season and we are going backward not forward. players dont look committed to the manager with players always haveing other things to do when there is a game such as Pogue yesterday, Bailo lots of times and the manager puts up with it. he should say you either are available or find another club. the club must have fa cup money to spend on quality player. he said when he came he had lot of work to do but so far we have had a few misfits that have lasted one or two game and we no stronger than when he came which surprise me with the amount time hes been in game and players and clubs he must know. i have seen few u21 and u18 game and some players look promising but not see any come through instead we get misfits that are like trialist that arnt good enough. For experience manager i am not sure he is still up to it
oh and yesterday when things going badly where was he? could only see Terry White trying to change thing from dugout while Maggs just sat down not looking as if he knew what to do, and second half we were even more hopeless so dont think much of his half time team talk
Agree with comments made about missing players. How many games has Bailo missed over the past season and a half? no use to anyone. And can someone enlighten me as to where Kenny was yesterday? Was management aware of his absence a while ago or was it last minute? Was it an injury? Too many drinks Xmas eve? Is he available tomorrow?. If someone can explain the reason then some of the rumors going around can be put to bed.
It doesn't matter who is in charge, we do seem to have these same problems every season. 33 players used this season already and 16 already left. That cannot be right and looking at the squads for the other teams around us in the league, they have nothing like the turnover of players we have. Lets stop getting in cheap, crappy loans and spend some money on some decent players, particularly 2 new full backs.
John, heard yesterday the Pogue was unavailable due to family commitments so could mean anything. do other clubs have this problem or is it only us? Is it because they are paid lowly fees and thats why they do not show maximum commitment?
Agree about the amount of players we get through season after season. The basic requirement for success is a settled team something we have not had for many a season.
The old saying applies you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
We are nowhere near professional enough. It makes no difference who the manager is he will not be allowed to do it his way.
We are nowhere near professional enough. It makes no difference who the manager is he will not be allowed to do it his way.
I think this is the absolute heart of what I was trying to say earlier. Not only are we not professional enough on the field, the vision for the club is not professional enough. Where I differ from the comments of some others above, is that I don't think throwing money at the playing side is the answer. Because all that will mean is we end up with players who would be here for the money, and then once it dries up, they'd move on somewhere else for free. We always seem to go for the wrong type of players - loanees who aren't really fighting to get into the first teams elsewhere. We should be, permenantly, be getting in players who need to prove themselves or have failed at a higher level as they then need to play the full 90 minutes of game as a team to be noticed - not have one or two good moments for the highlights reels which are sent back to their clubs. Intersperse this with some talented local youngsters on apprenticeship forms or whatever the equivilent are these days to keep things ticking over. Only requires one of them to become good enough that that's the new ground/Pilot Field bought.
I just think we need to look at a 10 year ideal, not focusing on getting promoted this year by throwing our funds at it. We throw our funds at it, we'll be in a higher league, maybe, but with noone wanting to play for us as we can't afford them. If the chairman is not the man to make this happen, then we need to find someone who can.
Hell, what would be the harm in becoming a feeder club for Brighton/Charlton youth players, with the funds that would come our way with a deal like that? At least then we'd have full time players, admittedly training apart, but technically solid guys.
Off the pitch, it staggers me the effort and commitment what seems to be a small party of volunteers do for the club. It then staggers me we get in crowds of 400 for a weekend game... 400! Out of a town of 90,000! Not even half a percent of the town rock up to the football. Something not quite right there.
-- Edited by glenn10 on Friday 27th of December 2013 06:30:24 PM
If there was a change of chairman pretty sure gates would rise about 100-200 at least that would be a start.
If you look round the town centre the club is not promoted in anyway. Even the town centre pubs do not display match day posters neither is there a poster outside the information centre in the town. People will support a club with a good set up that plans to move through the league system showing the are winning and improving not just lumbering from one season to another. Talk to anyone down the town and I bet the reaction would be the same they don't bother because it is a pointless set up at the current time they are going nowhere.
In any business you need a set up that pays the going rate and no more to get the correct people to do the job if you cannot do that then should you really be in business.
A bit of perspective here. One , admittedly awful, defeat and we are calling for a complete overhaul of the club (again). Yes, we need some decent fullbacks, and yes we have got lucky with some results early on, but the team has been improving over the season. I'm sure travelling 70 non-motorway miles on Boxing Day was not ideal for our part time players, especially when everybody else had a local derby.
Equally the ramsgate result should serve as the kick up the arse that might have been needed if a bit of complacency was setting in. It might also put an end to all of the fanciful predictions on here that we are going to stuff this team and that.
Yes Dave ! Agree that these predictions need to stop, all it takes is for the opposition manager to print the page of, stick it to the board and thats their team talk over and done with, not helpful to us what so ever!
1 
2 Pogue and Vickers
