After the 0-1 win against Guernsey it is now a huge task against
Carshalton are currently the number 3 in the table with 67 points out of 35 games.
Scored 83 and conceded 46 goals. Top scorer: Tommy Bradford with 27 goals.
Carshalton won their last 6 matches and did not loose a game in 8 matches.
Remember the away fixture: http://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/isthonesouth/match/22503 With hat tricks from Steve Watt and Bradford.
And we? Of course we didn't play well against Guernsey but we got the 3 points and conceded no goals in our 4 last matches.
My only concern maybe the lack of rest we have after the trip to Guernsey. We don't have a big squad and with injuries ( now Emptage) we can't afford more.
Hopefully a lot of supporters will visit TPF and give the lads and Management 100% support!
Hugh game for the team. I gather we tried to get it put back to allow more recovery time ,but not to be.Pidge and Akoto should be back to bolster the squad.
Let's hope we can get out a strong side. We certainly appeared to start with less than our best eleven at Guernsey and, it seems, were rather fortunate to take all three points.
Wow!!! Where did that come from? I thought the team were knackered from Sunday. What a stunning performance from the boys tonight and as good as we have been all season. After a cagey opening 20mins Hastings went on to absolutey batter a Carshalton team sitting 3rd off the back of six wins in a row. It really could have been 10 as we tore them apart time after time. And what a pleasant surprise to see us back to our passing game and none of that long ball rubbish of late. All the goals were great but none more than Kiernons stunner at the end, what a goal. And of course let's not forget another clean sheet.
Really difficult to pick out anyone tonight with all our big name players starring but special mention to Sobers who was magnificent again and Jack Evans, who I am happy to say I was completely wrong about as he ran the game from the centre of the park today. Fantastic night and we appear to be hitting form just at the right time. Let's just keep our feet on the ground now and not think Chatham will be a walkover On Saturday. Top night, top performance.
Have to agree John,a superb performance best of the season. Could not believe it was the same team that played Guernsey just 48 houris ago. Would not like to pick out a Man of the Match, proud of the whole team.
Yup...excellent performance with 100% effort from everyone. We have seen us murder some of the poorer teams this season but at this stage of the season, the cream has risen towards the top.....and we gave that a whipping too ! (Did you see what I did then?) I was fearing that three glorious missed chances at 2-0 may prove costly but then we turned on the style with three more terrific goals. I agree......no MOTM today as a team of stars...and this will send a few shock waves around the play-off chasing clubs.
Absolutely superb performance.You would be extremely hard pushed to see a better team performance than that at this level.Every player and management team should feel really proud.
A truly exceptional team performance with discipline and professionalism. Yes, all deserved MoM today. That said, I think a huge factor in our recent run has been the excellent performances from Jerome Sobers. He is a truly superb player, showing surprising aspects of his game at every turn. Did you see his pace on occasions tonight? And his goal! Wow, a genuine old school thumper.
The game was a tremendous credit to the league. Yes of course there are some poor teams and more than a few poor games; but no-one who watched tonight's game could be under any illusion about the quality which can be on display.
So, we've got ourselves into a play-off position a month earlier than I dared hope. All we've got to do now is keep going, be consistent and have confidence, Well there's no better way to build confidence than to put five past a side who came with six straight wins on their back.
I have never felt so good about being wrong, a while ago I said the chance of the play-offs had gone, well eat my hat, what a fantastic game of football, what a team performance all round, good to see so many people staying to cheer the boys off, well reserved, well done all,
Hammer Horror show at Hastings Well our last visit to the Pilot Field was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons, and we were on the end of a 5-0 whopping against high scoring Hastings. In what was a absolute shocker for the Robins who were on a 6 match winning streak before tonight.
Hastings started a one-sided half strongly and it wasn't long until Tupper was called into action as early as 10 minutes when he tipped a shot from Frannie Collin. Carshalton struggled to get a foothold in the game, and we seemed to have lost the ability to pass to teammates, and gave the ball away for to much. So it wasn't to much of a shock when they took the lead on 25 minutes. Hastings Matt Bodkin won the ball and set out onto a mazey run, we failed to get a tackle in, or do anything. He got as far as the penalty area and found Frannie Collin, who fired home at the second attempt. It got worse for the Robins just 6 minutes later when Harry Stannard fired in from a tight angle. We were chasing shadows, and were very flat. We had no answer, and we're really up against it. Another unchallenged run on goal this time from Bradley Stevenson forced Tupper into another good save. So as the half ended we had failed to get any shots on goal let alone on target in the entire half.
Hastings took their foot of the pedal for the start of the second half, and any chance of turning this around were dashed on 69 minutes when again we went missing in defence and Jack Evans fired in third, and never looked back. Finally our first shot of the game if you could call it that, came from Omar Folkes but it went very high and very wide. But it got worse for the Robins when they bagged their 4th goal of the game, and a incredible 100 league goals through a header from Jerome Sobers. That was it, game over. We did finally force the home keeper into a save through Jordan Hibbert, and the following corner fell to Miller who was also denied by the ex-Chelsea keeper Lenny Pidgely, who was probably bored out of his head by this point having nothing but a couple of back passes to deal with. Kieran Hughes-Mason made it 5-0 to hand The Robins their biggest league defeat this season.
This was a absolutely dreadful performance tonight from the robins who were never in this. There was something missing tonight we certainly didn't look like a team who had won 6 matches in a row. We gave the ball away, we couldn't string passes together. A Hastings fan informed me they had a makeshift defence tonight, but you wouldn't have guessed as we hardly tested it. Massively disappointing tonight. Let's hope this didn't damage our playoffs hopes to much. But a few players went missing, (quite literally in some cases) and need to take a good hard look at themselves.
Hopefully this was just a blip and we can put this right against South Park on Saturday, and get our playoff challenge back on track.
I was impressed with how solid we looked. As soon as we lost possession we quickly got in shape behind the ball. If someone was out of position everyone shuffled round to cover. .
I also believe that Kiernon has officially achieved cult status. (Well done spellchecker).
Brilliant performance last night against a good Carshalton side. Both full backs were excellent and Jerome and Ollie Rowe played superbly. All our midfield players worked tirelessly with Jack Evans being especially impressive in front of the defence. Frannie Collin is a quality footballer and led the line well. All the subs contributed to a valuable and exciting win. Well done to Darren Hare and Steve Watt for bringing in Jerome Sobers and Jack Evans at a crucial point in the season-they have made a big difference.
Have to disagree with John about Saturday's game. We need to have the same attitude and commitment against a Chatham side with nothing to lose- we struggled dreadfully against similar sides (East Grinstead, Molsley) so we need to be at our best again on Saturday.
I know we were on top for most of the game but how has Tommy Bradford scored 27 goals this season? Seemed to spend most of the time in midfield last night.
Think you misunderstand me Tim. Nothing about different attitude or commitment. We were talking last night about fans expectations now. Very easy after last night to think Chatham will be easy 6-7nil win but football doesn't always work like that. It was only 48 hours ago we put in one of our worst performances of the season despite winning at Guernsey. I have no doubt Darren and Watty will remind the players that last night means nothing if they don't go out with the same high intensity on Saturday.
The answer to the Carshalton fan who wondered why they looked so bad was that we were pressing them all over the pitch from the start. They were making mistakes which were turned into opportunities and eventually goals. The whole team went at them and I didn't want to pick anyone out but Simon was everywhere and, apart from the "drop goal", was my MoM and with Jack E having his best game for us Carshalton never had a chance.
If we keep up the same intensity on Saturday we should win and cement our place in the playoff positions.
Do people agree that is our strongest first 11 at present? I prefer the excellent Akoto to Butcher and I know he hates it, but Crutts is still our best left back. The rest of the team, now Evans is hitting form, picks itself. It just leaves Bradley Stevenson or Kiernon. I have reservations as everyone knows about Kiernon's work rate which is average at best but there is no doubting his eye for goal and he does seem to have that magic touch and be able to produce something out of the ordinary, but just feel Bradley offers a bit more both ends of the pitch. Nice problem to have though.
I find it a little sad that their report was not a little more generous to our boys, it seems to be all about how bad they were, pity that people find it hard to complement a really good team when they see one. I agree about Simon Steve, he really was everywhere, he must have been shattered when he came off.
Sadly not well enough to attend yesterday but it does sound a good performance. Why anyone should care what other teams think is beyond me. The score says it all. However, I do believe we still need a couple of additions as the next two months are going to be hectic
To answer your question, John, I really hope we can put out exactly the same team on Saturday...and that we can play with exactly the same intensity. Clearly Chatham may turn up with virtually no forwards and it may turn out to be a real battle to get a result. I hope I'm wrong.
Can't disagree with any of your assessments of the players. Crutts is such a good player these days he does equally as well at centre back, left back or midfield. Left back could actually be a good position for him to launch attacks from on Saturday. Can't fault Okoto at all so far (even though I realise I'm a bit more of a Butcher fan than you) and , after last night, absolutely no reason not to play Stephenson and Evans.
Long may this run continue.
Sadly not well enough to attend yesterday but it does sound a good performance. Why anyone should care what other teams think is beyond me. The score says it all. However, I do believe we still need a couple of additions as the next two months are going to be hectic
Another massive night for Hastings tonight. Although extremely unlikely, if we are to have even the slightest chance of winning the league, yes I said win it! then Cray have to beat Tooting and Lewes have to beat Dorking tonight. Tooting lose and then we beat them then suddenly the gap is just 7. We can but dream.
There's was one really big question answered for me last night " can Akoto deal with a frontline that in theory should have been his biggest test to date ? ". The answer was a big YES ... the boy had their left winger totally in his pocket . He took what looked like a nasty knock .. recovered and carried on as if nothing had happened . I ask you all to check his awareness of players around him . For me is a revelation and can clearly play left or right back . I just hope we can keep him . Well done again John 👏👏. That back four was as good as I've seen for us for a few years !!
Does anyone know the how many attended the game last night. Can't wait to see them Saturday, let's hope another win and clean sheet. Congratulations to the team and management on reaching 100 goals scored.
Many thanks john, teams like Dorking and South Park who have been reasonably succesful so far this season have a pathetic home crowd following, quite how they would fare financially in a higher league is debatable. Someone must be keeping them afloat but for how long?.
Another massive night for Hastings tonight. Although extremely unlikely, if we are to have even the slightest chance of winning the league, yes I said win it! then Cray have to beat Tooting and Lewes have to beat Dorking tonight. Tooting lose and then we beat them then suddenly the gap is just 7. We can but dream.
Sorry John, after 4 minutes Tooting are 1-0 up.............
Great result ... really have a good feeling for the end of the season
Sadly I missed the game as still on way back from blinking Guernsey as delayed by fog and had to stay an extra day on the stupid island and it's airport ... trust me to miss a great thrashing lol
Great result ... really have a good feeling for the end of the season
Sadly I missed the game as still on way back from blinking Guernsey as delayed by fog and had to stay an extra day on the stupid island and it's airport ... trust me to miss a great thrashing lol
