After the win against Walton we have another chance of picking up the points against
Sittingbourne is currently the number 20th in the table with 18 points out of 14 games. 6 wins, 8 losses and no draws!
The loss at home against leaders Folkestone last Saturday ( 1-2 ) was their fifth successive defeat in the league and all games with only one goal difference.
Last season we drew at home 1-1 ( goal man-in-form Tyrell ) and won away 1-3 ( goals Pogue,Cooke and Ade )
And we ? Climbing up the table and with games in hand we can make a huge step towards the play-off places. Although we seem to play a lot better then earlier this season this kind of games are often the difficult ones. But with the support of the home crowd i am very optimistic. Hope all of you are too! COYU's !
Tony Rickson previews Hastings Utd v Sittingbourne 27th October 2015, KO 7.45
It can be a tough game, football, and Sittingbourne’s players will need to show their mental strength when they travel to Hastings on Tuesday night. The last month has seen them hit by injuries, suspensions, an important player leaving, poor refereeing decisions, and close defeats in games that could have gone either way. Whatever the reasons, they’re down to 20th in Ryman League Division One South and they’ve lost their last five league games. Going to Hastings is never an easy trip and the Sussex side have hit a bit of form by winning their last three matches. Sittingbourne will hope midfielder Ollie Bankole – who played for Hastings at the end of last season in their successful bid to fight off relegation – is fit for selection.He returned to action as a second half substitute in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by league leaders Folkestone Invicta, and immediately made an impact. But the knee which had kept him out for three weeks was still bandaged and Bankole may not be risked from the start. Saturday’s defeat was very disappointing for Sittingbourne but at least they will be heartened by how well they played for much of the match. They probably could have led by more than 1-0 after a storming start when their pace and ability to get round the back and the sides was hard for Folkestone to deal with. The decision to try Conrad Lee as a midfielder paid off spectacularly as he scored his second excellent goal of the season. Folkestone were appealing for offside over that one, and in fact all three goals were controversial, with the visitors hitting back to win with a disputed penalty and a goal that Sittingbourne in turn claimed was offside in the build-up. While Sittingbourne were narrowly losing, Hastings were coasting to a home victory, 2-0 over Walton & Hersham. That was their first win at home in the league since August, but overall they’ve made a better start to this season than last. They won at Sittingbourne 3-1 in the second match of the season, Bankole pulling a goal back for the home side. Sittingbourne drew 1-1 at Hastings last season in a match which saw Lee make his debut for the club, Miles Cornwell getting their goal. And it was 1-1 the season before, Hicham Akhazzan getting the goal on that occasion in a match goalkeeper Adam Molloy will remember well. He made an excellent save from a penalty only for the referee to order a re-take, ruling that Molloy had come off his line. The re-take went in to give Hastings their point.
4 in a row, and nice seeing us in the top 10 as well. Things seem to be clicking into place. We were everything we needed to be tonight against a dire side. Good to see us playing an attackive game, lots of pressing and to a high tempo.
Should have won by more, but another good game from Tyrell and the impressive Cruttwell who seems natural in the centre of midfield now.
Totally agree with Winchy ! We dominated in all areas against a very poor team . But how many times over the years have we failed to do that to poor teams ? I haven't seen us play since the Poole game and that was a 100% improvement last night . Passing the ball along the ground against another team that seemed to be full of giants . It works ! Lots of chances and it simply shows how much that we can now comment on missed chances rather than how many the opposition could have got . Yes we could have scored more but it's still work in progress . Well done to every single player last night for the extra effort that was put in too . It was very encouraging 👏👏👏
Decent performance last night against an absolutely dreadful team. Look forward to seeing the stats as we must have had well over 20 shots and cannot remember one from them. Defensively, once again, we looked very solid and they didn't get a sniff all match and in Simon Johnson we had the best player on the pitch by a mile. He was fantastic last night and ran the game from center midfield. Sammy looked back on form and Crutts did very well. If he can just stop giving the ball away so much there is no reason why he should not make that place his own. In between giving the ball away he always looks the most likely to make something and I guess that consistency will come with experience. I thought the front boys caused problems all night, I just love Medlock, and good to see Harris get a goal. And very few long balls in site!!!
So a decent performance and now on a nice little winning run. Definitely need some finishing and crossing practice but all in all very pleasing and with Walder, Attwood and Vickers all waiting in the wings things looking promising once again.
About ourselves: I can usefully add little to what Winchy, Windy and John have already said; other than to say that I thought Jerome Smith had a very good game - amazing that he was able to fit into our back three so well after an absence of several games. To have players in the squad capable of that is very positive as the season progresses and injuries and suspensions take their inevitable toll.
About Sittingbourne: Oh dear. They were candidates for the worst team seen in a long while at Pilot Field. Jono looked one of their best players as did the heavily strapped Ollie Bankole when he came on ........
Last night was good against a Sittingbourne side that quite frankly didn't really turn up. Speaking to their secretary before the game, he said they were struggling to score goals when they had the chance, but they had little chance last night - I think Josh Pelling made one save, which didn't really trouble him too much. He now has equalled that amount of clean sheets he got last season - a pretty good stat considering we're not even in November yet, but probably also says a lot about our play last season.
Last night was good. We passed the ball around brilliantly and Simon Johnson was the best player on the pitch, without a shadow of a doubt. He was class all night with his passing, holding the ball up and precision - everything was good about his performance apart from the shot he had at the end which probably ended up in the woods behind the Elphinstone Road stand!
We looked comfortable in possession and strong, like a team going somewhere this season and I hope that remains the case.
I was reading an article in the Non-League Paper yesterday about the manager of Molesy accusing teams in this league of 'coasting' - not worried about promotion or relegation; I know we haven't played them yet, but I really don't think we fall in to that bracket. We look hungry and our attacking play last night was excellent - just a shame we couldn't capitalise. Credit to Adam Molloy the Sittingbourne keeper though - he made some excellent stops to prevent us from running away with it, especially in the second half.
Very happy with last night, and hope we can keep going on in this direction - but not get complacent!
Hmmm - just a tad frustrating getting programme notes away in time etc etc for a game I can't get to. Well done to all concerned. Games in hand backlog will build up again on Saturday. Can't make that one either!
Imagine the frustration Dan and I have been through producing a whole programme for a possible for replay in the FA Cup that hasn't been needed then Simon! Time has been spent more wisely than that!
Looks like we're all in agreement for once. Midfield three were brilliant as were Crabb and Cole. Come to think of it they were all brilliant but if I had to pick a MoM it would be Simon. Great to see Razor back in the goals again. Ref did Ok as well.
JohnW you are spot on, decent is about as good as I would give it, we are still not creating the number of clear cut chances our dominance suggests we ought to. And the failure to get 3 goals clear leaves us looking very vulnerable should we make a mistake and concede in the last 10 minutes.
Sadly the quality of opposition in the last week has proved woeful, and one can only assume that W&H and Sittingbourne's budgets are so small they have players that no one else wants. Whereas we have 5/6 ryman premier level players in our side they have had 5/6 county league league level players in theirs.
I still think with the quality of performance we are now producing, it will see us in the play-offs but we need to raise the bar a level if we want automatic promotion.
Automatic promotion is certainly achievable but like Chris says we need to put those chances away . Credit where credits due though ,,, it was only a month ago where most of us were saying we had little chance of reaching the play offs let alone automatic ,, so well done to all but lots of work still to do .
was not at game but does not sound like away team was up to much like Walton Hersham but good to get another 3 points and clean sheet and move up table and by sound of it we pass the ball around more instead of lumping it forward so maybe management look at this forum and change there game plan finally
As ChrisB rightly says I think we need to raise the standards even more still some sloppy play out there but very very encouraging and I'm liking the face Gary has given Tyrell his chance as he's defo showing what a class player he is just hope our performances can continue as November to Feb has never been a strong period for us but defo pleased with what I'm seeing
