Be good to stop our run of defeats against Ashford tomorrow. Hope Dave Martin and Lloyd Dawes are fit- a fit Lloyd Dawes could be a big factor in our season. Very frustrating for him to miss out last week.
Rather mixed feelings about today's game. Obviously any home game after so many away games is welcome and any game against Ashford can't help but be at the least competetive and likely combative; but, particularly with the cancellation of Tuesday's game, it is troubling we are getting so far behind with our league fixtures. I want us to beat Ashford of course; but, in that context, it's difficult to see the prospect of an extended run in the Trophy as anything other than a mixed blessing.
As others have said, we need Lloyd Dawes to keep as fit as possible and have as much game time as possible in the games which matter most. The same can be said of quite a few others. So, the team selection will be interesting today!
First of all congratulations to John Martin who won £170.00 on the 50/50 with ticket 38391. As for the game thought pretty competitive but overall deserved to win. Well done to James Hull for taking and scoring from the penalty.
A bit of a mini-tragedy for Lloyd today. He is obviously desperate to play and contribute to the team. Hope he can find the solution. Otherwise a solid team performance. Needed our quality centre halves to be at their best and, together with our hard working midfield, we restricted Ashford's scoring opportunities. James Hull did well- interesting match up with Dan.
Well, I'm glad we won! Particularly in front of a 1000 plus crowd, mostly it seemed from Hastings including an increasing number of families. We've got momentum and have just got to hope the inevitable league fixture deficit doesn't cost us later on.
Another good performance by Kenny Pogue. Taking nothing away from Sam Adams, who ran and ran, I would have given Kenny or Tom Chalmers MoM. Ashford, I thought were disappointing.
A special award for the most loopy yellow card recently displayed should go to today's referee in booking Ollie Black for 'dissent'. In terms of the unpunished foul language and abuse referees are routinely on the end of, Ollie's mild query as to why his long throw was interupted deserved no more than a polite explanation - not some theatrical brandishing of the yellow plastic.
Of course, the real downside of the day was Lloyd Dawes coming on and pulling his leg muscle within seconds (well before his collapse under mild challenge in the penalty box a few minutes later). He needs to get fully fit. We need him. I just home it won't take too long.
I think we take solid performances from our back four as a matter of routine these days and that is pretty well confirmed by the fact that Louis was hardly called on to make a save today, despite Ashford having plenty of possession.
The game never really took off as a thriller with both teams rather cancelling each other out in midfield but I feel we deserved the win by creating far more danger in their area than they did in ours.
Felt Sammy was a fair enough choice as MotM as he never stopped working and both Jack and Sam H put in a good shift too. While Kenny may have scored I didn't feel he offered anything like the threat on the left that Tom did on the right. Really sorry for Lloyd who in retrospect probably should not have been used today, meanwhile Lanre rather looked like he was short of game time and we all know be can contribute more.
A win in the FA Cup or Trophy is always welcome, but you can't help wondering if every extra game reduces our chances of achieving the prize we really seek !
whats not to love, 8 wins in a row now...young local lad comes in and bags a goal and we make ashford look bang average...over a thousand at a fa trophy(thanks windy) game hats off to all you fellow U's fans. nice for lanre to get some more minutes in as down the line his quality is going to be invaluable for us only worries from the game for me is Lloyd Dawes who it looks to me is at a make or break moment at hastings ,when this guy is fit he is incredible and leagues above this level, we arent seeing that and i hope he can whatever it is right and ready because as ive said before when he is fit and the balls at his feet he is a joy to watch as a fan and we all want that.
-- Edited by Hastingschris on Sunday 10th of October 2021 08:06:33 AM
Comfortable win, although the clever set piece routine caught us off guard and for a moment I thought they would take full advantage from there, but restricted them extremely well and played some great passes, other than a few nervy moments which some people in the main stand didn't enjoy. I actually for once thought the ref was doing very well, up until the point when he booked Ollie and Sam which caused frustration (perhaps he's a Maidenhead fan and wanted them off). Other than that, very good performance, thought James Hull did very well in replacement of Ben Pope so we've defiantly got competition there. Felt sorry for Lloyd Dawes as I rate him highly. Would have thought Ashford being local they would have bought more support down, although traffic was a nightmare getting up Elphinstone Road straight after. Didn't make it back until 19:30 when I should have been back an hour earlier. Hope it won't be that bad in a couple of weeks!
