Saturday, September 3, 2011

For the second time in five days, United wasted an incredible chance to get their home campaign up and running, as they failed to beat a side reduced to ten men before the interval, and this time, they could not even manage a point for their troubles, despite the odds apparently being stacked more heavily in their favour.

Carshalton arrived at the Pilot Field this afternoon with a near identical playing record to the U's, four points from as many games, just with a slightly better goal difference. They left with three additional points in the bag, after having illustrated the gulf in class that exists between United and some of their rivals, and they did that despite having experienced midfielder Tom Davis sent off in the twenty-sixth minute.

Only the former Sutton man will know what was going through his head, when he dived past Josh Jirbandey in the corner of the U's penalty area, barely two minutes after being cautioned for a foul on Matt Hall. Referee Oliver Jackson was quick to brandish a second yellow card, and a red card with it, while Francis Quarm talked himself into a booking for leading a largely muted protest at the decision.

So decisive were the referee's actions in that incident, that it seemed curious that Hall himself should escape dismissal later in the contest for cynically upending Dean McDonald. The United midfielder had collected his fourth yellow card in five matches for an earlier foul, having also been involved in a minor skirmish with Davis before the first half drama began to unfold, and was eventually substituted for his own sake.

By the time Davis headed for the tunnel, the visitors had already gone in front, and the U's were already displaying a worrying lack of attacking momentum. A tepid opening quarter of an hour had seen little to raise the hopes of a slightly improved crowd, although a clever backflick by Josh Jirbandey from Fred Foreman's corner crept across the face of Nick Hamann's goal without anyone being alert to the possibility of a simple tap-in.

The sixteenth minute brought the visitors a free kick however, with the felled McDonald picking himself up and striking a shot against the edge of the United wall, a thick deflection initially wrongfooting Lloyd Anderson, who changed direction and got both hands to the shot, only to disappointingly help the ball into the roof of the net.

Paul Vines should surely have made it two, not long after Davis had disappeared, but left back Dan Bolwell tracked the striker's free run into the area to effect a superb block at the expense of nothng more than a corner. The young defender then almost became a hero at the other end, as Hamann managed to spill a routine cross at Bolwell's feet, but did enough to block his attempted cross.

As the half wore on, United enjoyed a few moments of partial success in the final third of the pitch, Foreman picking out Jamie Crellin's fine run from deep, only for the midfielder to scuff his shot, and Arron Hopkinson seizing upon David Ray's woefully underhit backpass to bear down on goal, but to then take forever over his effort, allowing Craig Tanner to recover a lot of ground to block.

The accomplished McDonald ultimately decided the contest with a moment of brilliance just four minutes after the interval, but from United's point of view, the opportunity for the ex-Ipswich and Gillingham forward to sublimely turn Sean Ray and fire past Anderson was eminently avoidable. Two free headers released Billy Crook in space down the right, and the midfielder was then not closed down quickly enough, before crossing for McDonald to weave his magic.

United's response was rather less than overwhelming, with Foreman's speculative volley forcing Hamann into his only serious save of the match, and although the Robins' keeper continued to flap rather charitably at crosses, almost trying his best to make a game of it perhaps, he seemed alone in that mission, with those in claret shirts strangely reluctant to join in.

The day could have got worse for the U's, had Hall not been so leniently dealt with, while weaker officials could easily have seen more sinister motives in Scott Manning's strong touchline challenge on Tanner. George Jones' full debut also ended with a knee injury that sadly required the use of a stretcher to assist him from the pitch.

McDonald should have helped himself to a hat-trick as well, but Anderson stood up smartly to smother his last minute effort. It did nothing more than paper over the cracks of a poor display though, and only the misery of others can provide United supporters with any solace this evening.

As the U's slid into the bottom four, their next opponents Concord, one of the few sides beneath them in the table, were hammered 5-0 at Lowestoft. It sets up an intriguing clash at Thames Road next Saturday, when the words relegation and battle might just be on a few people's lips. United should be at fuller strength at least, with Jack Dixon back from holiday, and the likes of Jack Walder and Ben Billings hopefully back from injury, but with Wes Tate having departed the scene for Rye United, the goalscoring department is badly in need of an early season overhaul, and some confidence generally wouldn't go amiss either.

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Hastings United (4-5-1)							Carshalton Athletic (4-5-1)
1 Lloyd Anderson							1 Nick Hamann
2 Scott Manning							2 Kieran Murphy
3 Dan Bolwell							3 Craig Tanner
4 Jamie Crellin							4 Francis Quarm
5 Sean Ray (c)							5 David Ray (c)
6 Josh Jirbandey							6 Justyn Roberts
7 Arron Hopkinson							7 Billy Crook
8 Matt Hall							8 Tom Davis
9 Kenny Pogue							9 Paul Vines
10 Fred Foreman							10 Dean McDonald
11 George Jones							11 Dean Lodge
Substitutes
12 Lee Carey (for Hall 77)							12 Michael Kamara (for Tanner 88)
14 Jack Walder							14 Anthony Joseph (for Vines 81)
15 Aaron Parris							15 Joel Ledgister
16 Mark West (for Bolwell 77)							16 Ricardo Joseph (for Lodge H.T.)
17 Ross Sutton (for Jones 77)							GK Scott Chalmers-Stevens

Attendance: 431

Referee: Oliver Jackson (Sittingbourne)

Assistants: Mark Tasker (Lewes) & Colin Mallows (Burgess Hill)