Saturday, August 27, 2011
United's early season emotions continued to fluctuate from one extreme to the other this afternoon, as their long trip to Suffolk ended in a humbling defeat against a Bury Town side with rather loftier ambitions than the U's for the 2011/12 campaign.
The general malaise of last Saturday's home loss to Wingate & Finchley had given way to healthy optimism after the midweek victory at East Thurrock, but this five goal hammering provided United with a sobering reality check, as well as unequivocal evidence of what can, and more often than not will, go wrong if they defend as poorly as they did today.
The U's were chasing the game from the tenth minute, when keeper Lloyd Anderson allowed a deflected Kieran Leabon shot to slip through his grasp, with the former Whitehawk custodian almost presenting Bury with a second ten minutes later after rushing out of his area and being beaten to the ball by Sam Reed, who was unable to convert from a tight angle.
A torrential thunderstorm almost made conditions unplayable for a spell, but the home side pressed on regardless, with Lee Smith finding space down the right to double Bury's advantage in the thirty-third minute, before Blues' keeper Marcus Garnham, man of the match in the corresponding fixture last year, pulled off an outstanding save to deny Kenny Pogue a goal back before the interval.
The sun greeted the players' return for the second period, but it sadly didn't appear to be shining on Pogue, who headed disappointingly wide from a Matt Hall free kick, and with that, went the U's last real chance of getting back into the contest, as Bury ran away with things in the final quarter.
Sam Reed finished off a fine passing move to make it three in the sixty-ninth minute, before horrific errors started to creep in to United's play, gifting goals to Russell Short and substitute Craig Nurse in the closing stages, consigning the U's to a crushing defeat that saw them slide to seventeenth in the table, with only bottom club Leatherhead having a worse goal difference after three matches.
United will have just forty-eight hours to get this defeat out of their system, before welcoming Margate to the Pilot Field on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon. The Kent side also lost heavily today, beaten 4-1 at home by Lowestoft Town, so there will be no shortage of damaged pride on display!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
|
|
| Bury Town | (2) 5 | - | 0 (0) | Hastings United |
| Leabon 10 | ||||
| L Smith 33 | ||||
| S Reed 69 | ||||
| Short 78 | ||||
| Nurse 85 |
| Match facts | Efforts on target | Efforts off target | Free kicks conceded | Corners won | Offsides against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bury Town | 9 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| Hastings United | 3 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 3 |
| Bury Town (4-4-2) | Hastings United (4-5-1) | ||||||
| 1 Marcus Garnham | 1 Lloyd Anderson | ||||||
| 2 Russell Short | 2 Scott Manning | ||||||
| 3 Mark Coulson | 3 Dan Bolwell | ||||||
| 4 John Kennedy | 4 Jamie Crellin  |
||||||
| 5 Roscoe Hipperson | 5 Sean Ray (c) |
||||||
| 6 Sam Nunn | 6 Josh Jirbandey | ||||||
| 7 Lee Smith | 7 Arron Hopkinson | ||||||
| 8 Kieran Leabon | 8 Matt Hall |
||||||
| 9 Sam Reed | 9 Kenny Pogue |
||||||
| 10 Lee Reed | 10 Wes Tate | ||||||
| 11 Stephen Smith | 11 Ben Billings | ||||||
| Substitutes | |||||||
| 12 Tom Bullard | 12 Fred Foreman (for Billings 67) | ||||||
| 14 Luke Ingram (for L Reed 78) | 14 George Jones | ||||||
| 15 Craig Nurse (for L Smith 70) | 15 Jack Walder (for Tate 67) | ||||||
| 16 Elliott Hunter (for Short 82) | 16 Ross Sutton | ||||||
| GK Richard Robins | |||||||
Attendance: 359
Referee: Paul Forester (Luton)
Assistants: Thomas Hancock & Martin Holes