After the good win last Monday we are back at the Pilot Field to play against
CAFC are currently on place 19th in the table with 6 points out of 5 games.
Last season we lost both games, home 1-2 ( goal Poque ) and away 0-3.
And we? After the last wins hopefully the team have gain a lot of confidence. Surely we can see we score enough goals (16 ) but also conceded some (8). Only Dorking scored more goals (17)
Our attacker scored 6 ( Jack Harris 4 and Zac Attwood 2 ) but also Sam Cole is doing well with 3 goals in the League. Sam Cole.
So hopefully a lot of supporters will come to TPF and support the team so we will stay in the top of the table!
Although the records show that whilst still Hastings & St. Leonards we entertained Carshalton here in a league game on Saturday, 29th December, 1928 the fact that the match was in Division One of the Southern Amateur League proves that it was that town’s other club who still play in that same league and stage their matches in nearby Wallington.
As far as Carshalton Athletic are concerned, their first visit here was when they visited us after WWII in the Corinthian League where we played them in the two seasons before we were forced to resign due to the loss of a suitable ground - the Pilot Field having been taken over by the original Hastings United club.
Saturday, 15th February, 1947
Hastings & St. Leonards1 – 1Carshalton Athletic
Corinthian League
Scorer:Alfie HoddScorer:Bob Lloyd.
Saturday, 10th May, 1947
Carshalton Athletic1 – 4Hastings & St. Leonards
Corinthian League
Scorer:D. BallScorers:Len Holdstock (2),
Jimmy Jones and Harry Young
Saturday, 17th April, 1948
Hastings & St. Leonards2 – 0Carshalton Athletic
Corinthian League
Scorers:Jack Farrelly
and Jimmy Jones
Wednesday, 21st April, 1948
Carshalton Athletic5 – 0Hastings & St. Leonards
Corinthian League
Scorers:Jack Penny (2),
Len Chatterton, Vic Honey
and Jock MacDonald (penalty).
As a consequence of losing use of the Pilot Field, we then did not play each other again for over forty-six years and there was a gap of almost sixty years between league encounters:
Saturday, 8th October, 1994
Hastings Town 2 – 2Carshalton Athletic
F.A. Cup – 3rd Qualifying Round
Scorers:Steve Lovell (657)Scorers:Jimmy Bolton and John Ugbah
and Stuart Playford
Tuesday, 11th October, 1994
Carshalton Athletic 1 – 2Hastings Town
F.A. Cup – 3rd Qualifying Round Replay
Scorer:Jimmy Bolton (711)Scorers:Richard Callaway
and Stuart Playford
Saturday, 2nd October, 2004
Carshalton Athletic 1 – 3Hastings United
F.A. Cup – 2nd Qualifying Round
Scorer:Dale Marvell (337)Scorers:Ryan Peters, Carl Rook
and Jon Wallis
Since our play-off success in Division One (South) in 2007 we played each other in the Premier Division of the Ryman League in each of five seasons and have also successfully overcome them (3-1) in an F.A. Trophy first qualifying round tie here in 2007.
Remarkably we had not lost away to Carshalton Athletic since 1948 until season 2011/12 when they did the double against us, a feat they repeated the following season.
We renewed acquaintances last season when Athletic won both league matches:-
Oh dear, just when you thought last years shambles was behind us we put in a performance like that. Yes they scored a brilliant goal and we missed a couple of sitters along with a world class save from their keeper but the overall performance was just not good enough. Why we have reverted back to long ball football I have no idea and its just not working. Their number 6 looked about 3 stone overweight so what did we do, we hoofed long balls on to his head for 90mins, a little bit like we did at Chatham and a little bit like we did against Folkestone. Our passing was generally poor all day and Sam Cole apart, we looked dreadful in the final third. Yet again, their was no chemistry whatsoever between Jack and Zac and we just don't look mobile enough in the centre of the park. Throw in yet another poor performance from Sam Crabb and the management team have massive problems. We all know its going to take time and thoughts of us pushing for promotion are unrealistic with this team but you do expect to see improvements as the season goes on. For me we are getting steadily worse. It was a fantastic crowd today and a massive opportunity for the team to put on a real show but based on that it may be a while before some of them return. Very poor and a repeat on Tuesday, less Sam Cole, and we could be on the end of a Folkestone thumping once again.
We made an average side look very good today, disappointing. Their keeper obviously isn't their first choice, but apart from one good save in the first half, he looked nervous at crosses. We hardly tested him. Attwood has been poor since coming back as well. Not looking forward to Tuesday now . . . .
Absolutely dire from start to finish.Complete lack of motivation,just did not want to know.If we can't beat teams like Carshalton then what chance do we have.Could now see us starting to slide down the table with the games coming up.What seems evident at the moment is that Jack and Zac are not able to play together as strikers.When they do,we just seem content to hoof the ball up to them which doesn't get much success.Nobody in the centre of the pitch able to supply a telling pass at the moment.Will now see if Garry is a good manager or not by seeing our reaction to this shameful display.Good attendance today,which will begin to dwindle no doubt.
Absolutely spot on, John. Why did we keep hitting long ball after long ball that was getting us absolutely nowhere ? My only guess is it's because we are lacking the quality to build properly through the midfield like Folkestone did......and that has to be a big worry. It seems we need to get some more quality into this area to even compete with the mediocre teams in this league. Jack and Zac were totally ineffectual today (very different to the Chipstead match) and I do often wonder how Zac has done so well at a higher level when I watch him in a Hastings shirt. Another disappointing performance. Positives today other than Sam Cole ? Well, not too many but I thought Ollie looked composed and assured at the back and Tom Vickers also made some impact. The honeymoon is now definitely over and Garry has some sorting out to do because what we saw today ( in front of a really good crowd) was simply nowhere near good enough. Let's just hope this was simply a really bad day.
I haven't been coming to games very often over the past 2 or 3 seasons. I have seen 2 games this season. Folkestone and today. Shan't be coming back again in a hurry I am afraid.
Really dont understand the zac and jack partnership after chipstead. Had thought they would be good together but seemingly not so. Surprised there was such a big crowd today as seemed very quiet. Dread to think what will happen on tuesday now. Think supporting hastings should come with a health warning
Dire to watch, and the management team look clueless, we are heading for another managerial change at this rate. We need pace to play alongside Zak, and bit more pace out wide, and a creative midfielder. So if we have to let 3/4 go I don't think it will be a bad thing. We have good players that wont gel, so manager has to act soon.
Nobody said it was going to be easy to rebuild virtually from scratch. We are going to get some setbacks. But to compare where we are now with last season, and to call a management team clueless, seems a bit harsh. We all know how fickle supporters can be - if we go back on a run, gates will improve. I wouldn't write us off just yet. We might just get a reaction on Tuesday.
Doeboy you are posting without suggestions as too what you would do. Its been awful the last 5 games, without any sign of improvement, and today we had players walking again, not covering back. That is the one major sign something isn't right, and Sean had a real go at his teammates at times today for what I believe was down to this. Change your name to doebrain it would be apt.
Let's not go down the 'get the manager out ' road again. The board will and must, stick with these guys until the end of the season And I have no doubt they will get it right. The big disappointment for me has been our style of play. In pre season and our first few games we played at a very high tempo, closed down the opposition quickly and got forward quickly as a unit. Now we appear to be happy to hoof the ball long at every opportunity. Why we have gone down this route I don't know, because despite their size both Zac and Jack are very average in the air, but I'm guessing it may have something to do with the lack of creativity in the centre of the park. I've been quite disappointed with Jack Walder and apart from one spectacular goal he has offered very little this season.
I don't think we are a million miles away but the early signs are that we desperately need a creative midfielder in the mould of Lee Carney or Wayne Wilson at Faversham, another right back, and get Okoh fit quickly. Sort that and we should be okay.
Disappointing performance today with Alfie Hall, when he came on, seemingly the only player capable of playing the ball up to our front players' feet. Not many things went Hastings way but it was unsettling the number of poor first touches and misplaced passes that squandered possession. We clearly haven't settled on a style of play that suits our players but we are still developing as a team and we will surely improve as the season progresses. Thought Carshalton did well and had some good , if rather bulky, players.
Well ChirsB that's exactly what i expected from you what does the B stand for bu**s**t go tell the managers what you want them to do i'm sure that will listen. ha ha
Tim, I accept we are still developing, but wouldn't you be expecting to see some improvement not deterioration in our performances. We have been outplayed in 3 of our last 4 league games and marginally edged the other in an awful game. The only way I can see us improving is a change in personnel on the pitch. We had exactly the same last year a good squad at the start of the season that didn't gel, and at the moment the similarities are alarming.
The midfield centre two and front two are just not clicking at the mo, see Frannie Collin is available on a loan at the mo from Maidstone, worth a punt If he'd drop two levels?
Filmed it all in HD as well today, not sure if it will really be worthwhile but should be up tomorrow sometime.
-- Edited by Dan on Saturday 5th of September 2015 08:30:03 PM
-- Edited by Dan on Saturday 5th of September 2015 08:35:14 PM
We started off with a poor Chipstead side and Hythe made us look a bit better than we probably are as a side that has plenty of decent players in it gets the gelling process going. It'll never happen overnight and there may well be more Carshaltons ahead. Today was hugely frustrating - we just never got going and Carshalton could've won by a lot more than 1-0. They played their football on a perfect surface while our lads were stuck in a quagmire, so it appeared.
Folkestone - at this early stage - have made a great start and will doubtless relish the chance to knock us even more out of our stride on Tuesday. The big difference is they have been building up over a couple of seasons into genuine contenders, if not favourites to win the division while everyone else scraps for the lottery of a play off place. Our team, in comparison, has played a handful of games. We have a far better side than we did last season - I'm sure that will eventually show through.
Dead ball don't tempt Chris!! He's always posted a while ago something about how he's a qualified coach or something irrelevant! But calling for the manager to go is just beyond a joke! I actually chuckled at that too. To be calling for a manager to go so early and after such a good start is highly amusing. People on the Lewes forum seem to want Garry and Danny back there, and they're in the relegation zone! Garry has brought in some very good players from all over the non-league pyramid and of course they're going to have off days, like today. Yes today was poor but it's been rare this season that we haven't come out better in the second half, but we go again Tuesday...
I think it's a bit unfair to criticise the front two too much. It can't be easy to find the chemistry if you never get the ball at your feet to pass to your partner. I don't think the long ball is a very good plan A, but everyone in the ground could see it wasn't working, and still there was no plan b. I'd rather see us lose trying to play football than have to watch that every week.
Liam don't make yourself look an even bigger idiot, I have never claimed to have a coaching qualification and although I have reservations about our managerial team, I have not said they should be sacked. If you read posts why do you not comment accurately on them.
My final point on today is good players don't always make a good team.
ChrisB - the guy who initially gave Dom Di Paola '18 months maximum stay' but has given a I initially fairly successful Garry Wilson 3 months... #Logic
Liam .... i wasn`t meaning for someone to sign as a manager or coach, but as a player ! lets face it, if his feet could move as fast as his judgements on managers he would make a cracking midfielder. and maybe then he could deliver something constructive for a change.
i think Chris makes valid points in that we are going backwards. pre season was showing good signs, early games although against poor teams we continued that and played nice football on the floor with using different tempos some slow and patient and mixing it up with quicker passing and breaking quickly. it was looking good so not sure why manager is now going to hoof it forward football and yesterday was as bad or even worse than football last year. if we are going to hit it long then we have to fight for the second ball cos yesterday Carshalton were first to everything and clearly wanted it more than our unmotivated players. Zac was hugely disappointing and nothing has changed since he was last here and looks lazy and only works when ball is at his feet. Tyrell is not good enough for this level yet and needs better decision making in his game. Walder disappointing to he looks like he always is looking for killer pass 30 yards long but all it did yesterday was give carshalton defenders an easy time. Wilsons programme notes say we are a work in progress but what i see is that we are getting worst not better and when we have all seen that we can play nice football on the ground and have a nice pitch to play that on i dont get why the manager is making things complicated especially when it is not working but there is no plan B.
the crowd was good yesterday and similar to last season when we played worthing in early september but if that kind of football is the norm and we just hit long balls the crowd will quickly fall like last year. what nice supporters carshalton have though and that was only thing i enjoyed yesterday was their noise and colour with all those flags.
We had the second highest crowd out of the 36 games across the Ryman Leagues yesterday, only Dulwich again ( who had 1500+!! ) beat us. Always a shame that we never seem to be able to rise to perform well in front of decent crowds.
Ok. Saturday was not one of our better performances and we could have lost by a greater margin but this is not the time to be over critical of players still settling in and definitely not sensible to be undermining a very good management team who are struggling to find our best combination. Let's now get behind the team and go for a win at Folkestone. It can be achieved with total commitment from all the team and more confidence and backing from our supporters. Did you see the Carshalton banners and hear the vocal away support. Show faith in our manager and team and I'm sure they will come through this blip.
Just got back from a 10 day holiday but feels like I've returned a year ago though ...trapped in some kind of weird time trap !! Same old comments !! Zzzzzzz ! I'm being told the crowd was big yesterday but our fans were quiet , why ? Did we start losing the game before the game kicked off or something . I hear the Carahalton fans supported their team right through the game ( as usual , nice bunch of fans , noisy and colourful ) . I'm sure our players would benefit from a bit more noise and encouragement. I know I wasn't at the game but having spoken to some of the players recently they have told me they appreciate loud vocal support . Im too starting to sound like an old scratched record now as it's not the first time I've said this 😂😂 ...so I'll shut up now ! It's just a thought ! Adios Amigos !
Fantastic highlights Dan, well done! What they do highlight once again for me are the problems with Sam Crabb. I have absolutely no idea what position he is playing, right back, right midfield, attacking wing back? But the highlights appear to show him in all these position in between just strolling around doing very little. A few of us have been very critical of his work rate and his tracking back and it was interesting to see Jack Walder covering at right back when the penalty was conceded. All the time Jack is doing that it is leaving us very open through the middle, something that happened throughout yesterday.
we had quite few singers yesterday but no real starters Windy, n just a thought just wondering could we not try what we did last season were interview manager coach n few players after game so us fans can see there opinions??
If someone wants to ask the questions professionally on camera I'll film it and upload it. I'm sure Garry and Danny would do it ask they always did for Lewes.
I was there on Saturday, and like all of us was hugely disappointed by the result and our performance, but I've hesitated to comment because I felt unsure of what I could usefully add to John's excellent initial posting. I think all that I want to say now, after the dust to an extent has settled, is that we must make our forum comments positive and not get into the: 'it's all a disaster' / 'sack the manager' syndrome which was an unfortunate feature of some posts last season. To my mind our only chance of success this season is to support the management team and give them all the time required. That does not mean that we should not offer constructive comment: but please, please, let's not even think of sowing the seeds of last year's procession of players and managers.
hear hear Geoff .... i to was there Saturday, and yes things could have been a bit better, but some of the things I keep telling myself are, although it would be great to be the best team straight out of the blocks .... the season is a marathon not a sprint, and as supporters we should be the 12th man, the ones that celebrate them in victory, the ones that commiserate them on there losses, but more importantly ... the ones that cheer them on for every 90 mins they put that shirt on for us, (however painful that may seem at times), as that might be the thing that tips a match in our favour.
-- Edited by dead ball on Sunday 6th of September 2015 10:31:15 PM
Wasn't good on Sat but blimey let's not go overboard, gonna get teething troubles and will just have to accept that the next few months may not be as smooth as we hoped after the first couple of games. We've got an experienced team and a good squad in general imo so confident the current run of form in the performance will pick up.
Glad to see abit of sanity has returned to the forum again. I did literally LOL at the mention of "another managerial change".
So, just refelecting on the last two home matches...... we were outplayed by Folkestone but people seemed to accept that they will be serious title contenders while we are still 'work in progress'. And their emphatic victory only came when we were chasing the game with 10 men. Fair enough.
Saturday though seemed to have a far more sobering effect on this forum. Suddenly it was all doom and gloom which perhaps got a bit out of proprtion with the reality. Yeah, we were poor, plenty of players were off colour and it wasn't good to watch...which was a huge shame as clearly a few more locals had been lured back by the encouraging start. But as others have said, we are in a much better position that a year ago and I'm sure the management will be looking to strengthen where necessary and try to get us playing again. Clearly Carlshalton had a bit more about them than we, the supporters, expected. They had a bad start but have now only lost one in six so we were never going to have quite such an easy ride as Chipstead.
Tomorrow will be tough because Folkestone looked really polished at the PF. But I expect to see a positive response from the team after Saturday.
I am not sure what is wrong with any comments on this thread apart from one person questioning the managers position but i still think it is a shame and a worry if the manager think that the way we have tried to play lately is just aimlessly most of time kicking the ball forward is better than what we saw in pre season and early games when we passed it more constructively. I dont get why the change but if that is the way they have decided to play ffotball it is not very nice on the eye to watch.
Sam Cole.
