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Whyborne walks but United hang on for valuable point - 12/2/08

An excellent performance brought United the scant reward of a single point from their trip to second placed Staines Town this evening, the visitors pegged back after having defender Rhys Whyborne sent off for a professional foul in only the twenty-sixth minute of an enthralling encounter at Wheatsheaf Park. United were completely dominant throughout much of the first half, with Lee Carey giving them an early lead, and Ade Olorunda doubling it ten minutes after United had been reduced to ten men. The home side fought back to level though, with two goals in three minutes before the interval, and United were forced to endure a few nervy moments in a one-sided second half, but battled superbly to claim a share of the spoils.

Responding to Saturday's indifferent result at home to Wealdstone, manager Tony Dolby made changes to his starting line-up for the first time since taking charge last month, with recent signings Danny Leach and Nathan Simpson both handed their full debuts. Danny partnered Ade in attack, with Sam Adams playing wide on the right, and Antonio Gonnella missing out, while Nathan came in for Russell Eldridge on the left hand side, giving an excellent account of himself, and looking much more assured and influential than he had when played at left back at the weekend. Tony also named himself amongst the substitutes, with young Jack Franklin not travelling with the squad on this occasion. The Staines side, obviously keen to avenge a two goal defeat to United in Tony's first game at the helm, showed a mere seven changes to that which started at the Pilot Field all of two and a half weeks previously, with injuries taking their toll due to a backlog of fixtures. The league's leading scorer Mark Nwokeji had returned to fitness though, linking up with former AFC Wimbledon striker Richard Butler in attack. Giant central defender Francis Duku lined up in place of regular skipper Matt Flitter at the back, while James Courtnage continued to deputise for injured keeper Shaun Allaway.

United made a tremendous start to the match, much as they had done on Saturday, and there was only one team in the contest for the first twenty-five minutes. Having survived an early injury scare, when Sam came of worst in an accidental collision with full back Dave Sargent and was left hobbling for several minutes, they took the game to their hosts, and Jimmy Elford fired just over from twenty yards, while Sam forced Courtnage into the first save of the match from a similar range. United were looking untroubled at the back and dangerous in attack, and it came as little surprise when they took a fifteenth minute lead, Ade turning stand-in skipper Danny Gordon and accelerating towards the penalty area, holding off two other challenges before slipping a simple pass to his right for the unmarked Lee Carey to advance on goal and coolly beat Courtnage from close range. The pressure on the home goal was maintained, with Sam narrowly missing the target after receiving a short corner, and Danny seeing a snap shot from twenty-five yards gathered by the keeper. Staines failed to test Lee Worgan until the mid-point of the half, when Andre Scarlett's corner was only partially cleared, the same player curling in a shot that Lee tipped away, with Butler unable to direct the rebound on target. Nwokeji then wasted a decent opportunity, dragging a shot wide after running onto Scarlett's through ball, although these had been but isolated incidents in an otherwise dominant display from United, who were forcing all sorts of errors from the home side and looked menacing whenever they entered their opponents' half. However, all that was to change in the twenty-sixth minute, when a towering header from Gordon suddenly sent Butler free, a yard clear of the United defence, with Rhys hauling him back just outside the penalty area and paying a heavy price with a sadly obvious red card. Although the ensuing free kick was wasted, all the momentum had swung in Staines' favour, with Tony perhaps needlessly rushing into taking the understandable decision to sacrifice a forward for a defender, as Kevin Rose replaced the unfortunate Danny, and asking United to sit in two solid banks of four, with Ade ploughing a lonely furrow beyond the halfway line. Staines surprisingly stuck rigidly with their 4-4-2 formation, rather than committing an extra man forward, and United initially coped well with their reduction in numbers, going on to stun their hosts by doubling the lead ten minutes after the sending off. Danny Spice's long throw seemed to have been adequately dealt with by the home defence, but right winger Howard Newton played his team into trouble by slicing an attempted clearance high in the air and back towards his own area, where Tim won possession and teed up his brother for a first time shot that bobbled past Courtnage's despairing dive and into the bottom corner. Memories of United's courageous play-off semi-final win at Dover briefly came to mind, but were quickly erased, as Staines struck back straight from the kick off, Kevin missing a tackle on Nwokeji midway inside the United half, allowing the striker to turn away and set up Butler for a shot that beat Lee low to his right and rebounded back off the upright, only for Nwokeji to win the race to the loose ball and convert from close in. Buoyed by the goal, Staines pinned United back in their own half and drew level barely three minutes later, as right back Marcel Nugent drilled a low ball into the heart of the penalty area, which Kevin inexplicably opted not to clear, allowing it to run through for midfielder Adrian Toppin to collect and steer a shot past Lee from six yards out. The story might have become worse still for United before the interval, as Butler advanced onto Sargent's long ball into the left hand side of the area, but Kevin did just enough to put him off and the shot was well off target.

The second half kicked off with United well and truly on the back foot, but with Staines still curiously persisting with their four man defensive line, despite having only Ade for company. With Sam and Nathan Simpson working hard to deny their opposing full backs too much time and space, the spare man for the home side was most frequently skipper Gordon, who appeared ill-equipped at finding a decisive pass, and too many long balls were too easily cleared by United's solid back line. As the half wore on, Butler began to take it upon himself to drop deeper, demanding possession of the ball in areas from where he could run at defenders and drag them out of position, but United ultimately coped with the tactic and emerged with a share of the spoils. That is not to suggest that Staines did not create chances in the second period though, their better opportunities falling to Butler, including an early effort that he sliced harmlessly wide. He then ran onto Nugent's through ball, but deliberately diverted the ball past the onrushing Lee Worgan with his hand, the referee disallowing the goal that followed and cautioning Butler into the bargain. Sam fired a long range volley straight at Courtnage on a rare United sortie into the Staines half, but although they still looked an occasional threat on the counter-attack, support for the tiring Ade was too often slow in arriving, and possession too quickly surrendered, for Staines to be placed under any sustained pressure. Marc Charles-Smith replaced Nwokeji on the hour mark and almost had an instant impact, beating Lee to a Nugent cross, but glancing a header just wide, and then drilling a deflected shot from the left that Lee did well to block with his legs. Nugent exchanged passes with Newton before blazing a left foot shot over the bar, while United then had an almighty escape, when Butler intercepted a long range effort from Nugent, drove past Nathan Russell, and placed a shot past Lee from a tight angle, which Danny Spice, in attempting to clear with arguably the wrong foot, managed to direct onto the underside of the crossbar, before finally scrambling the ball to safety. Staines regrouped for a late assault on the United goal after Kerem Bashkal had replaced the skillful Scarlett, a belated sweeping move from right to left creating a huge gap for Newton to drive into the area, only for Lee to rescue United again, saving well with his legs for a second time. Butler sent a looping header onto the roof of the net from Dwain Clarke's right wing cross, while in stoppage time, an impromptu wrestling move from Kevin earned him a yellow card, but at least halted Toppin's progress outside the area, with Clarke's free kick flying through a crowded area for a disputed corner, which came to nothing, and United had done enough to hang on for a point.

As if to make a mockery of their dismal defeat to relegation rivals Wealdstone last time out, United have now taken nine points out of a possible fifteen against sides challenging for promotion, including four out of six against a Staines side strongly fancied to feature in this season's play-off final. United will hope to at least match that achievement when they visit injury-hit Horsham on Saturday, another of this season's Ryman League FA Cup heroes, and also another side harbouring realistic dreams of post-season glory.

Match facts	Efforts on target	Efforts off target	Free kicks conceded	Corners won	Offsides against
Staines Town	6	6	14	9	4
Hastings United	5	4	12	2	0

Staines Town (4-4-2)							Hastings United (4-4-2)
1 James Courtnage							1 Lee Worgan
2 Marcel Nugent							2 Danny Spice
3 Dave Sargent							3 Jimmy Elford (c)
4 Danny Gordon (c)							4 Rhys Whyborne
5 Francis Duku							5 Nathan Russell
6 Andre Scarlett							6 Nathan Simpson
7 Dwain Clarke							7 Sam Adams
8 Adrian Toppin							8 Tim Olorunda
9 Richard Butler							9 Ade Olorunda
10 Mark Nwokeji							10 Danny Leach
11 Howard Newton							11 Lee Carey
Substitutes
12 Jon McDonald (for Sargent 87)							12 Russell Eldridge (for Simpson 90)
14 Kerem Bashkal (for Scarlett 73)							14 Antonio Gonnella
15 Matt Flitter							15 Kevin Rose (for Leach 28)
16 Marc Charles-Smith (for Nwokeji 60)							16 Frankie Sawyer
GK Trent Phillips							17 Tony Dolby

Attendance 272

Referee Chris Williams (Aylesbury)

Assistants Andy Roberts (Tattenham Corner) & Wayne Ingram (New Malden)