Saturday, August 13, 2011
United brought their pre-season programme to an end this afternoon with a battling draw away to Corinthian-Casuals of Ryman Division One South. It took a penalty ten minutes from time to rescue the game for Jason Hopkinson’s men though, after they had conceded earlier in the second half.
The opening thirty minutes were pretty even, although the U's played the better football during that spell, but without really threatening Matt Mann in the home goal too often. Casuals were the first to create an opening, when Kane Sargent fired over from the edge of the area. Midway through the half, Wes Tate saw a decent header saved by Mann, and then carelessly lost possession in the area when well placed.
The final ten minutes of the opening half were dominated by the home side, as they cut through United’s back-line with ease. Jack Dixon brought down Joel Thompson for a penalty on thirty-seven minutes, only for Glenn Boosey to send his spot kick wide, with Lloyd Anderson having dived the wrong way. Jamel Carr then fired over the bar with only Anderson to beat, and then saw a cross shot hit the inside of the far post and rebound into the keeper's arms. Boosey later fired straight at Anderson when well clear.
Tate shot wide from the edge of the area early in the second half, while Kenny Pogue then scuffed his shot when well placed. The visitors were still looking anything but secure in defence however, and they finally conceded on fifty-nine minutes, Sean Ray failing to deal with a cross from the left, and giving Boosey the chance to fire home from twelve yards.
Dixon went close to an equaliser when he fired wide of the near post after cutting in from the right, but United did get back on terms in the eightieth minute, when an attempted cross by Pogue was handled inside the area for a penalty, which Pogue took himself, making no mistake and levelling things up.
A mixed bag of friendly results for the U's then, but there have been plenty of signs of decent football from Hopkinson's new look squad, and an indifferent pre-season record will mean nothing when Ryman League action returns next weekend, with newly promoted Wingate & Finchley due to visit the Pilot Field for the big kick off.
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| Corinthian-Casuals XI | (0) 1 | - | 1 (0) | Hastings United XI |
| Boosey 59 | Pogue pen 80 | |||
| Corinthian-Casuals XI | Hastings United XI | ||||||
| 1 Matt Mann | 1 Lloyd Anderson | ||||||
| 2 Rob Sheridan | 2 Jack Dixon | ||||||
| 3 Scott Hassell | 3 Ross Sutton | ||||||
| 4 Darren Chalk | 4 Lee Carey | ||||||
| 5 Wayne Finnie | 5 Sean Ray (c) | ||||||
| 6 Jason Turley | 6 Josh Jirbandey | ||||||
| 7 Jamel Carr | 7 Arron Hopkinson | ||||||
| 8 Paul Honey | 8 Wes Tate | ||||||
| 9 Joel Thompson | 9 Kenny Pogue | ||||||
| 10 Glenn Boosey | 10 Fred Foreman | ||||||
| 11 Kane Sargent | 11 Ben Billings | ||||||
| Substitutes | |||||||
| 12 Danny Green (for Carr 66) | 12 Scott Manning (for Dixon 63) | ||||||
| 14 Tom Williams (for Finnie 63) | 14 Matt Hall (for Foreman 63) | ||||||
| 17 Gavin Quinton (for Boosey 76) | 15 George Jones (for Hopkinson H.T.) | ||||||
| 16 Jamie Crellin (for Pogue 82) | |||||||
| 17 Jack Walder (for Carey 63) | |||||||
| 18 Dan Bolwell (for Billings 63) | |||||||
Referee: Mr J Richardson
Assistants: Messrs P Johnson & J de Rennes