BASICS
- Home
- News
- Next Match
THIS SEASON
- Results
- League Table
- Attendances
- Results Grid
- Form Guide
- Opposition
THE CLUB
- The Squad
- Man Of The Match
- HUFC Profile
- HUFC Support
RESERVES
- Fixtures
- Squad
INTERACTIVE
- Our Guestbook
- Official Forum
- Official Guestbook
- Fans View
OTHERS
- History Of Us
- Links
- Contact Us
13
6
4
6
13
1
0
ATTEMPTS ON TARGET
ATTEMPTS OFF TARGET
BLOCKED SHOTS
CORNERS
FREE KICKS
YELLOW CARDS
RED CARDS
1
5
1
0
14
0
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
14
15
16
17
Jimmy Elford
Russell Eldridge
David Henham
Mark Green
Ryan Peters
Ricky Spiller
Steve Ringwood
(Y) Mitchell Sherwood
(4) Carl Rook
(Sub 1) Mark Goodwin
(Sub 1) Chris Honey
Simon Stickney
Danny Ellis
Paul Roberts
Karl Emerick
Scott Saunders (Sub 3)
Barry Gibson (R)
Ryan Briggs
Mark Horan (Sub 2)
Richard Vercesi
Darren Adams (Sub 1)
Junior Samuels
Stuart Abbott
Kevin Winchcombe (Sub 3)
Darren Penfold (Sub 1)
John Taylor (Sub 2)
Chris Whitehouse
Clark Hunt
Erith & Belvedere 0
Attendance
246
Carl Rook to the rescue from what the facts show, but in reality this rather poor game showed the difference between sides at the bottom and us, we are in a unrealistic position, but things happen like Eastbourne bloody Borough beating Weymouth today 2-1, unbelievable, we beat Histon the other week, but even with a poor game, United got nothing more than they deserved.
Simon Stickney was dropped for United and Jimmy went back to right back and Ricky Spiller went to right wing. While Erith had mixed feelings, Clark Hunt the young keeper who let in five on Tuesday (which Erith fans said was down to him) was dropped and the impressive Jani Seitsonen went between the posts, but the main one was Apko Sodje out of the starting eleven and out of the squad, have they got rid of him.
The match didn�t really get into second gear until the second half although Jimmy Elford�s shot went nearer the woods than the goal, but Jani was called into action about 20 minutes into the match, Ryan Peters free kick on the edge of the area was superbly palmed away for a corner. Ricky Spiller was denied of the ball by Jani�s awareness, as he collected the ball before Spill�s. Mark Goodwin also saw his header at the keeper and when he turned his man everyone thought maybe a goal, but no the ball was slung into the net, behind the goal, miles off target.
But United took the lead on 25 minutes. The ball was played into the box, and the linesman put his flag up for a penalty, it was for a Erith defender pulling down Carl Rook, and it turned from bad to worse when Karl Emerick was sent off for the first foul. Carl Rook stepped up and fooled Jani as Rookie placed the ball into the left hand corner.
Erith had their first main chance after half an hour, Samuels was found in the box, his shot was deflected off David Henham and over the bar, although Greg Nessling hurt himself in the process of banging into the netting. Mark Goodwin had his feeble shot at the keeper, and Carl Rook�s shot was powerful enough but it was at the side netting.
Then a massive plus for United, Darren Adams was involved in a collision with Greg Nessling, neither got the ball, but no-one was at fault, Darren Adams came out the worse, he was subbed for a cut on his head. But Samuels saw his header just flash wide of the post.
The second half saw United play better football, while Erith were trying to push up unlike their first half performance. But Mitchell Sherwood got past two and his shot was blocked in the box, the ball fell to Rookie who put in a terrible slow shot at Jani. Then Samuels had another chance, but he saw his attempt go wide. The match wasn�t impressive for the first 50 minutes, one thing to note was the corner flag falling over by the blustery wind.
United made the possession count into another goal, a long ball up field was well won by Rook, he took the ball past Roberts and his beautiful curling shot beat Jani all ends up and it went into the far corner. By the way things were going United literally had the game wrapped up, Erith were feeble, very poor, although they had their best players off the pitch, but Vercesi had his shot saved easily by Nessling, that was the first attempt on goal for Erith.
United then had a chance to go 3 up, but it was Erith�s defensive barrier that denied Hastings, a corner came in, the defender blocked it, the ball fell to Rook who shot was saved by the keeper, the ball rebounded to Jimmy Elford who had his shot blocked, then Ryan Peters had his shot blocked for a corner.
Carl Rook nearly turned provider when his ball through was met by Goodwin who got into the box one-on-one with the keeper, but he took longer than he should�ve and Ryan Briggs got in a great challenge to deny Goodwin�s shot to be on target. Carl Rook was involved again a minute later when he got past three defenders got into the box, didn�t lay the ball off to the unmarked Goodwin, but he lost the ball, and he went over in the box, the referee blew up for a dive, Rook obviously didn�t lay it off when he had the goal in his sight, and a hat trick a possibility.
Then Paul Roberts of the opposition sliced a ball back to Jani in goal, and Jani had to punch the ball wide for a corner, then from the resulting corner Ricky Spiller hit a powerful shot at goal that was blocked by Carl Rook, the ball fell to Mark Goodwin, but his shot went nearer the corner flag. But after chance after chance Carl Rook finally got his hat trick, Ryan Peters laid the ball through to Rook who tapped the ball past the keeper and dispatched the ball into the rather empty net.
But Erith didn�t give up they still had time to see John Taylor�s shot go wide as hell, United had real confidence and it showed as Ryan Peters again laid the ball to rook on the edge of the area, who shot into the corner to give United a healthy 4-0 lead. United played out the rest of the game with fast flowing football and really camped inside the Erith half, United full of jubilation at the full time whistle, and David Walters a very happy man, although he looked freezing cold, should�ve brought a woolly Hastings United hat.
A few stats for you, Greg Nessling kept his first clean sheet for the club on his sixth appearance, Carl Rook the first player to score a hat-trick for Hastings since Paul Jones at Arundel in the Sussex Senior Cup over two years ago, and I believe the first player to score four goals in a game since Steve Lovell did it against Sudbury when Hastings Town won 4-3, I believe back in September 1994, nearly ten years.
Dartford lost to Tonbridge Angels 3-2 today so United are two points behind, Fleet lost at home to Burgess Hill 3-0 so a nine points behind them, while Rothwell beat Ashford I believe 2(or 3)-1, so we are still six points behind them, and of course I believe Erith lost somewhere 4-0, so were five ahead of them. United can go up two places if we beat Kings Lynn on Tuesday evening as long as Folkestone can beat Dartford at Gravesend.
Claret�n�Blue Man Of The Match
Mark Green
What is it with this guy, he plays out of his skin against Erith & Belvedere, he paired superbly with David Henham, who has a great understanding with Green. Green though, only made one mistake all afternoon, and he corrected that, he cleared and battled with Erith�s strikers, if not Darren Adams it was Junior Samuels who gave 100% throughout the 90 minutes. But no we have an understanding Green has brought the confidence back into United.