Saturday, January 14, 2012

A week after winning one big relegation battle, the U's sadly returned to losing ways when faced with another equally important affair, as a largely disjointed performance saw them slide to defeat on their first visit to Fetcham Grove in almost exactly five years.

United started the day in sixteenth place, with a six point advantage over the Tanners, who hold two games in hand and have a superior goal difference. They ended it down in eighteenth position again, and staring even more nervously over their shoulders, as an ever evolving scrap to avoid a place in the bottom four continues to heat up.

Denied the services of leading scorer Zac Attwood through suspension, manager Sean Ray paired Kenny Pogue with Jordan Woodley up front, recalling Ben Davisson to the starting line-up to play on the left flank, where there was also a change at full back, with Matt Whitehead replacing Ross Sutton. On the bench, Scott Manning's return proved timely, and he was forced into early action after an injury to Jack Dixon, while Joe Barham's withdrawal due to illness left the U's with only three subs.

On a bitterly cold day, Pogue wasted a great early chance to warm United hearts, heading wastefully over from close range, and at the other end, keeper Matt Armstrong-Ford was first extended by his own skipper, as Josh Jirbandey got in the way of an attempted clearance and would have scored a highly unfortunate own goal but for a sharp reaction save.

Just a couple of minutes after Dixon's departure, Leatherhead were presented with an excellent opportunity to break the deadlock, when the U's were harshly penalised for handball inside their own penalty area, but striker Tommy Hutchings contrived to drag his spot kick several yards wide, and United justifiably escaped with a clean sheet intact at the interval.

They weren't so lucky within three minutes of the restart though, Jirbandey hauling down Kev Terry just inside the area to hand the hosts a second penalty, this one emphatically converted by captain Mark Simmons, while Jirbandey collected his fifth booking of the season to earn himself a one match ban in the process.

Woodley's fine strike was well kept out by Leatherhead keeper Chico Ramos moments later, but in truth, alarms were few and far between in the home defence, as United simply seemed to run out of ideas, with Hutchings putting the visitors out of their misery by atoning for his earlier miss with a sublime chip over the poorly positioned Armstrong-Ford in the sixty-seventh minute.

The final quarter saw the U's essentially resort to long ball tactics in a vain attempt at generating some attacking momentum, but as quickly as the ball passed over the midfield area in one direction, so it was returned in the other, and the impression that United were rather the worse of two poor sides was ultimately inescapable.

The U's now face a run of three tough league fixtures, starting with a visit from leaders Billericay Town on Saturday, but beforehand, can look forward to the welcome distraction of a League Cup quarter final against play-off chasing Bury Town at the Pilot Field on Tuesday evening.

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Leatherhead (4-4-2)							Hastings United (4-4-2)
1 Chico Ramos							1 Matt Armstrong-Ford
2 Liam Pestle							2 Jack Dixon
3 Rob Hill							3 Matt Whitehead
4 Jamie Coyle							4 Lee Carey
5 Jerry Nnamani							5 Sean Ray
6 Mark Simmons (c)							6 Josh Jirbandey (c)
7 Ryan Thomas							7 Danny Ellis
8 Vernon Francis							8 Jamie Crellin
9 Kev Terry							9 Kenny Pogue
10 Tommy Hutchings							10 Jordan Woodley
11 Colin Richmond							11 Ben Davisson
Substitutes
12 Elliott Thompson (for Thomas H.T.)							12 Scott Manning (for Dixon 33)
14 Gary Drewett (for Terry 78)							14 Nick Gonsalves (for Woodley 71)
15 Billy Manners (for Francis 90)							15 Ross Sutton
16 Goma Lambu
17 Greg Andrews

Attendance: 331

Referee: Reuben Simon

Assistants: Mark Sennett & Nicholas MacKenzie