Hastings United v Tooting & Mitcham United - Saturday 11th October 2008

Pre Match Report

I’m Roger Sinden here at the Pilot Field where today Hastings United entertain Tooting and Mitcham United

Most clubs would look to home matches with anticipation and confidence, but not so Hastings United this season. With five straight defeats at the Pilot Field, with only one goal scored, Hastings must be wishing that all of their matches were away from home. In contrast, on their travels, four wins have been registered from six starts, the most recent victory being at Margate last Saturday.

Goals from Ben White and Sam Adams in the first half followed by Marc Whiteman’s last minute strike earned a victory which was a real boost for morale against a reasonable Margate side.

Today’s visitors Tooting and Mitcham United were promoted last year and appear to have adapted well to the higher flight. Despite an early season seven goal thrashing at the hands of Ashford Town Middlesex, they have bounced back well. They currently occupy third place in the table and have won the last three consecutive matches. Likely to be in goal for Tooting and Mitcham this afternoon is former Pilot Field favourite Dave King whose height enables him to command the penalty area with confidence,

For Hastings, manager John Lambert is moving to finding a settled side and assuming that Frankie Sawyer has recovered from an injury which necessitated his early withdrawal last week,  a similar starting line up is expected. It’s a tough fixture on paper, but United must look to kick start their home form with a decent performance and result.

Roger Sinden for SATURDAY SPORT the Pilot Field

Match Report

Hastings United (0  )  Tooting and Mitcham  United ( 3  )

Hastings dismal home run continued at the Pilot Field and disappointed home supporters have now only seen one home goal in 9 hours of play. Tooting and Mitcham were fast and direct throughout the 90 minutes and caused problems on both flanks. Hastings caved in after the second decisive goal and were well beaten. It would have been no surprise had Tooting score five or six by the close.

The visitors took the lead on 2 minutes with dangerous winger Craig Pitterson tying Andy Ballard up in knots before sending in a perfect cross for Michael Antonio to head home. The same player then squandered to further chances, clipping the post on 21 minutes and then heading directly at Nessling on 40 minutes with the goal at this mercy.

United started the second half more brightly with Whiteman looking dangerous. He shot straight at King after Ballard’s long throw and then appeared to have his shirt tugged back as he bore down on goal in a breakaway .Ben White’s long range effort on 56 minutes just cleared the bar and there was still hope.

Tooting finished strongly, but still at a canter. Andrew Howell’s swivelled low shot on 72 minutes through a crowd of players made it two nil with the third coming from Jamie Byatt. His well struck volley from Allan McLeod’s cross emphasised the gulf in class between the two sides. The match day sponsor struggled to name a Man Of the match for Hastings, but finally settled on substitute Jack Dixon who had only been on the pitch for 15 minutes. A sign of the times!

Roger Sinden at the Pilot Field for SATURDAY SPORT  where it finished

Hastings United ( 0  ) Tooting and Mitcham ( 3  )