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Pre-season campaign ends with another home loss - 11/8/07

The curtain fell on United's pre-season friendly campaign at the Pilot Field this afternoon, with no wins secured, and only three goals scored, in six matches, half of which ended in draws. And a second successive home defeat against Ryman Division One South opposition scarcely bodes well for the start of United's Premier Division programme next week.

That said, Nigel Kane has not yet been able to take a look at a full strength line-up this season, the unavailability of the Olorunda brothers and Russell Eldridge today compounding Dan Williams' continuing absence, while new signing Tom Cusden missed his third game in a row with the knee injury he suffered at Eastbourne ten days ago. More worrying for United will be the fact that skipper Sean Ray limped out of this afternoon's contest in the first half with an apparent groin injury, although if required, Nathan Russell continues to show great promise and should prove a capable understudy, if he has not already cemented a place in the starting eleven at somebody else's expense.

By the time Sean departed the scene today, a freshly rebuilt Croydon side for the new season had been in front for almost ten minutes, striker Lawrence Hamci running onto a defence splitting through ball and firing past Lee Worgan from just inside the area. Sam Adams should have levelled five minutes before the interval, but his chip shot drifted wide after he was left with only keeper Adam Wheeler to beat. Shortly afterwards, triallist Dom Weston missed an even better chance, completely failing to get his head to an inviting Lee Carey cross with the goal at his mercy, and half time arrived with the sparse home crowd already fearing the worst.

The usual glut of second half substitutions once again detracted from what little flow the game possessed, while the visitors seemed content to sit back and defend their lead. That they did so quite comfortably should be of great concern to United, who failed to offer much of an attacking threat after the restart, although Lee was unlucky to see a well struck goalbound effort deflected just wide by defender Adam Wadmore. At the other end, Lee Worgan enjoyed a quiet half until towards the closing stages, when he pulled off a spectacular stop to prevent Reggie Savage from doubling Croydon's advantage, and maintained his average of conceding just one goal per game throughout pre-season.

Indeed, three 1-1 draws and three 1-0 defeats do suggest that United's defence is in fairly decent working order at this early stage, but the lack of goals and of any great goalscoring threat, must be addressed quickly if United are to avoid an even tougher season than many will have already been anticipating at a higher level. United have only a week's worth of training ground exercises left now, in which to fully prepare themselves for next Saturday's big kick off away to Billericay Town, and to perhaps rediscover the promise shown in the first two friendly encounters against Dartford and Brighton.

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Hastings United XI							Croydon Athletic XI
1 Lee Worgan							1 Danny Wheeler
2 Danny Spice							2 Adam Wadmore
3 Jimmy Elford							3 Ryan Watts
4 Rhys Whyborne							4 Danny Waldron
5 Sean Ray (c)							5 Tony De Silva
6 Nathan Russell							6 Reis Aslam
7 Danny Ellis							7 Josh Bonnett
8 Scott Kirkwood							8 Manny Adams
9 Dom Weston							9 Moses Ademola
10 Sam Adams							10 Lawrence Hamci
11 Lee Carey							11 Shaun Graham
Substitutes
Kevin Rose (for Ray 34)							Gregg Savage
Dominic Cruttenden (for Weston 51)							Ashley Reid
Nkafu Aka (for Whyborne 67)							Herve King
John Bradley (for Carey 72)							Frankie Warren
Nima Cham (for Adams 80)							Nathan Campbell
Matt Darby (for Ellis 80)							Dwayne Morris
Brett Griffin (for Russell 87)

Attendance 143

Referee Frank Meilack

Assistants Derek Harman & Steve Jones