Monday, August 29, 2011

With both United and Margate hoping to bounce back from heavy weekend defeats, there was perhaps a sense of inevitability that this afternoon's August Bank Holiday 'derby' at the Pilot Field should have ended with honours even, each side also finishing with ten men, after red cards for U's skipper Sean Ray and Gate midfielder Dan Stubbs.

The two sendings off proved to be pivotal in changing the course of the game at the point at which they occurred, with Stubbs' dismissal for stamping on the grounded Jack Walder just before half time giving United the impetus after the restart, only for Ray to be shown a second yellow card in conceding the penalty from which Kwesi Appiah scored the game's fourth and final goal, with the visitors looking the better side again thoughout the closing twenty minutes.

U's boss Jason Hopkinson made two changes to the side thumped 5-0 at Bury forty-eight hours earlier, recalling Walder and Fred Foreman for Jamie Crellin and Wes Tate. Margate were without experienced defender Craig Cloke, with Wayne Wilson dropping to the bench in favour of Liam Coleman, whom he had himself replaced for the Kent side's 4-1 home defeat to Lowestoft on Saturday.

Foreman's inclusion certainly paid dividends, the striker scoring his first goal for the Club in the thirty-second minute, direct from a twenty yard free kick. That merely cancelled out Margate's twenty-first minute opener however, Appiah reacting quickest to tuck away the rebound, after Lloyd Anderson's excellent stop from a Tom Bradbrook free kick. That was tough on the U's keeper though, Anderson having pulled off another fine save to deny Appiah moments earlier, but he was a spectator as Bradbrook curled a shot inches wide soon afterwards.

Having scored with their only shot of the half, United scarcely deserved to reach the break on level terms, but they immediately made their man advantage count at the start of the second, Kenny Pogue firing narrowly over the bar, before Foreman's perfectly flighted near post corner was headed home by Josh Jirbandey to put the hosts in front.

Arron Hopkinson was denied a third by Jack Smelt's decent save, and Pogue couldn't quite stretch enough to convert when Ray headed another Foreman corner across goal, but on the whole, United were too wasteful with their final ball, and ran up a dozen offside offences, only once timing a pass to successfully breach Margate's increasingly high defensive line, when better execution would surely have led to further chances, and maybe a decisive two goal lead.

The visitors gained strength from the U's obvious anxieties, Bradbrook heading wide of a gaping target after Anderson's ill-judged decision to try and claim a Matt Bodkin free kick. And another Bodkin set piece then led to Ray's demise, referee Elliott Kay penalising the United man for handling in the area, and whilst it was fair to question whether that incident was truly deserving of a caution as well, Margate clearly felt justice to have been served, with Ray a shade fortunate to have only picked up a yellow card for a reckless first half challenge on Appiah.

The Margate winger exacted his own personal revenge by beating Anderson from the spot, after which substitutes Curtis Robinson and Adam Burchell both went close to grabbing all three points for the visitors, the latter wasting a glorious opportunity in the last minute of the ninety, Robinson's header and Dan Bolwell's miskick putting the striker clear on goal, only for Burchell to blaze over the bar from fifteen yards out.

United's own substitutes were rather less effective though, with neither Tate nor Crellin really able to get into the game, and George Jones doing little other than collect a silly caution for kicking the ball away, during a ten minute debut for the Club.

In the end, the U's will probably have been marginally happier than Margate with the point, which nudged them up a couple of places in the league table to fifteenth, one place below apparently big spending Carshalton, who visit the Pilot Field on Non-League Day at the weekend. 

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Hastings United (4-5-1)							Margate (4-5-1)
1 Lloyd Anderson							1 Jack Smelt
2 Scott Manning							2 Mark Corneille
3 Dan Bolwell							3 Dean Hill
4 Jack Walder							4 Richard Avery
5 Sean Ray (c)							5 Laurence Ball
6 Josh Jirbandey							6 Dean Pooley (c)
7 Arron Hopkinson							7 Matt Bodkin
8 Matt Hall							8 Dan Stubbs
9 Kenny Pogue							9 Tom Bradbrook
10 Fred Foreman							10 Liam Coleman
11 Ben Billings							11 Kwesi Appiah
Substitutes
12 Wes Tate (for Pogue 74)							12 Wayne Wilson (for Bodkin 85)
14 Jamie Crellin (for Foreman 74)							14 Adam Burchell (for Bradbrook 66)
15 George Jones  (for Hopkinson 80)							15 Dean Grant
16 Ross Sutton							16 Curtis Robinson  (for Coleman 60)
							GK Simon Overland

Attendance: 348

Referee: Elliott Kay (Hainault)

Assistants: Lee Dyson (Gravesend) & Martin Lebane (Bexleyheath)