Not the greatest of games played on a hot day,in fact the referee stopped the game twice for water breaks.Two well taken goals by Ben Pope , lots of possession but very little else. Still in the hat for the next round.onto East Grinstead Monday
I agree Phil; and I think the difficulty you had in selecting the MoM tells part of the story. (Phil was asking around for nominations and struggled to get two the same!) We looked superior in pretty much every department (apart maybe from their goalkeeper who had a good game particularly as he was one of their shorter players). But we struggled to find a final ball. That wasn't helped by the officials who seemed to have lost any concept of what under current interpretation constitutes a penalty offence. On another day we would certainly have had two and maybe four. With VAR as it is in the Premiership I would have thought we might have had six! Yes, Ben Pope is getting the goals from being in the right place at the right time. Credit to him. He might be a bit immobile and (although today was better than Tuesday) he needs to watch the line better, but you cannot coach the goal poacher's instinct. He has got it. We need it! Daniel looked as though he could beat any player on the field with ease but neither him nor Lanre were getting enough of the ball. We've got to remedy that. Daniel in particular is a superb talent. We have to use him to maximum advantage whilst we still have him because it is bizarre that he is not already playing at a significantly higher level.
-- Edited by GeoffM on Saturday 24th of August 2019 08:06:27 PM
Probably the biggest disappointment was that we didn't take the opportunity to get a few more names onto the list of goal scorers. Totally dominant in terms of possession and chances created and it was only some wild finishing, dogged defending and bad luck that stopped us getting half a dozen.
I think Lanre took a bit of a dive when coming in from the left but other than that I agree we had at least two good penalty shouts.
I'd have given MotM to Craig Stone.....very solid at the back and caused problems when he advanced with the ball. But what do I know ?
Bit concerning Mick you’d give mom to a defender, when we are playing an average county league side. If your judgement is accurate it suggests we have a lot of issues.
Craig Stone and Ben Pope two very good additions to the squad. Thought we were a bit pedestrian and predictable against not the strongest of opponents. But it was very hot and the win, with the prize money, was all that mattered. Hope we don't concede another goal like that all season-so annoying that Broadbridge Heath don't offer any threat all game yet one free kick can so easily lead to a goal.
Also, as mentioned above, we had two fantastic ball players in Ajakaiye and Aseez but fail to use them enough against sides like our opponents yesterday. It was very hot so I'm not going to say Hastings played a bit like a side in training for the over 60's walking football league.
Surely the important thing is to win games. Unbeaten this season. 1 goal conceded. The boys will get better and better. Its still early in the season and tomorrows game is the 4th in 9 days. This season the whole team look solid and the team spirit seems the same if not better then last season. last season we were scoring more goals but conceding a lot more. This season we are conceding less, but maybe creating less chances. Some fans continue to say we need to get out of this "rubbish league". I believe the way the management, coaches have set up the team this season, will give us a better chance of winning promotion. We have the best management, board, players and FANS in the league. Every week at home averaging 400. Week after week we see the same old faces on away days. Most away games we out number the home fans.
Lets get behind the boys at East Grinstead tomorrow.
It’s nice to have a cup run but I want promotion first. It’s hard to play against a side that puts eleven men behind the ball but we broke them down enough times and should have scored more. Pleased that Ben knows where the goal is and he is improving with each game. See you tomorrow guys.
