Not a game that will live long in the memory. Heavy pitch and I gather a few players under the weather, but felt we did not really get going.Still would probably have lost last season.
Agree with Phil that the slow pitch today did us no favours. It didn't cut up but due to the mild wet weather the grass was lush and the surface became more uneven as the game went on.
Thought we were the better team in the first half but spurned a few good half chances. Meanwhile HH scored with just about their only shot.
Second half we seemed to get pinned back in defence for long periods and could easily have gone two down. Fortunately we rode out the early storm and Ben fired in the equaliser.
Very hard to call MOTM ; Louis handled well today and the defence generally looked sound...with a few hairy second half moments. Lanre, Daniel and Jack failed to influence much, nor did Davide when he came on. I actually thought Ollie Stone did as well as anyone when he came on at half time.
All in all a fair result.
Good report Mick, although we have no player called Ollie Stone......I think he is a film director. Do you mean Ollie Black who came on after 73 minutes.
Mick, Ollie Stone would be a useful addition to our cricket team.
Pleased to come away with a point after not being at our best. Haywards Heath had a style of play which was better suited to the conditions and they made life difficult for us. Glad their no 17 wasn't fit enough for the whole match.
Considering the pitch our over complicated passing wasn't effective and in the heavy, slippery conditions was in danger of breaking down in dangerous areas. Frustrating when we are 1-0 down in the second half and have a free kick on the half way line that the ball ends up back with our keeper and a series of passes later as back where we started. Thought we looked most dangerous when we got the ball forward quickly and Craig Stone was hitting some telling long cross field passes from right to left. Could have done with a left footed player doing the same from left right and this was a game where we did miss Sam Cruttwell.
After Daniel's great performance down the right against Hythe, strange to see him spending all of the first half on the left. Made a difference when he got in the game on the right in the second half.
After doing well at centre half last week, Ollie Black didn't put a foot wrong when he came on at right back and Craig Stone was excellent again.
Does our way of defending at corners give too much time and space to players outside the area to get a shot off if the ball comes out to them? Or was McCreadie's goal just a one off?
Shame we didn't score from some of our good chances but hopefully a useful point.
We seem to be struggling a little bit with away games having only taken 7 points out of a possible 15 and only scoring 3 goals in 5 games.
Still as someone said earlier these sort of games we would have lost last season, but as an away point is good if we have any intention of winning this league we need to be turning these draws into wins.
Some of these away pitches are not conducive to our style of passing play and I think that Haywards Heath had done their homework on us and closed us down very quickly and gave us no time on the ball.
It was a shame that Jack Dixon got booked so early in the game as he is such a good player but seemed to fade slightly afterwards, presumably not wanting a second yellow.
Early Days and still unbeaten and 2nd in the table has to be regarded as a very good start though.
