Saturday, September 24, 2011
Ross Sutton scored his first goal for the Club, as United battled back from last weekend's abject FA Cup display to earn a share of the spoils after a long trip to Harrow Borough.
The full back struck with a seventieth minute free kick, which bounced up awkwardly just in front of home keeper, Charlton Athletic loanee Nick Pope, who will nonetheless have been disappointed to allow the ball to squirm beneath his dive.
Another of Harrow's summer loan signings from the Football League, midfielder JJ Bates from Dagenham & Redbridge, earned his side a point just six minutes later though, holding off a challenge by Josh Jirbandey, making his 100th appearance for United, and steering a low shot past Lloyd Anderson.
With neither side's early season form exactly setting pulses racing, the assembled crowd of just over 200 could hardly have been expecting a classic encounter, but there was plenty of decent attacking football on display, with both goalkeepers called into action on a number of occasions.
Harrow's best chance of the first half was foiled, not by Anderson, but by Dwayne Ofori'acheampong's miskick, when the striker found himself in acres of space in the area. At the other end, Jack Dixon and Fred Foreman brought the best out of Pope, but on the whole, a general lack of firepower once again let United down, with Kenny Pogue forced to sit out much of the game, just a week after being stretchered off with a foot injury, and defender Rhys Whyborne pressed into action as an emergency forward in the second half.
Arron Hopkinson was a surprise inclusion, having apparently signed off for the U's with a red card against Cray seven days ago, before his return to university in Cardiff, although he might have wished he stayed in Wales, his afternoon ending early and painfully with a broken hand. United were without midfielder Jack Walder through illness however, and holidaying defender Scott Manning as well, so will perhaps have been happier with the final outcome than their struggling hosts.
The draw was good enough to keep the U's in fifteenth place, while Harrow remain in the bottom four, but United will be eyeing a more comfortable mid-table position when bottom club Leatherhead visit the Pilot Field on Tuesday evening.
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| Harrow Borough | (0) 1 | - | 1 (0) | Hastings United |
| Bates 76 | Sutton 70 | |||
| Match facts | Efforts on target | Efforts off target | Free kicks conceded | Corners won | Offsides against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harrow Borough | 5 | 7 | 15 | 5 | 2 |
| Hastings United | 4 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 3 |
| Harrow Borough (4-4-2) | Hastings United (4-5-1) | ||||||
| 1 Nick Pope | 1 Lloyd Anderson | ||||||
| 2 Joe Kelly | 2 Jack Dixon | ||||||
3 Gary Jones  |
3 Ross Sutton | ||||||
| 4 Wayne Walters | 4 Jamie Crellin |
||||||
| 5 Danny Leech | 5 Sean Ray | ||||||
| 6 Evandro Delgado | 6 Josh Jirbandey | ||||||
| 7 Danny McGonigle | 7 Arron Hopkinson | ||||||
| 8 Rob Wolleaston | 8 Lee Carey | ||||||
| 9 Dwayne Ofori'acheampong | 9 Matt Hall | ||||||
| 10 JJ Bates | 10 Fred Foreman | ||||||
| 11 Sebastian Schoburgh | 11 Ben Billings | ||||||
| Substitutes | |||||||
| 12 Reggie Savage (for Ofori'acheampong H.T.) | 12 Kenny Pogue (for Billings 78) | ||||||
| 14 Scott Orphanou (for Schoburgh 81) | 14 Rhys Whyborne (for Foreman 76) | ||||||
| 15 Papa Agyemang | 15 Dan Bolwell | ||||||
| 16 Lee Wootton (for Wolleaston 81) | 16 George Jones (for Hopkinson 62) | ||||||
| 17 Quincy Rowe | |||||||
Attendance: 202
Referee: Christopher O'Donnell
Assistants: Contandinos Christodoulou & Edward Turner