GUT FEELING SIMON STODDART’S

My views - not United's - on semi-pro football and occasionally, other topics.

Up And Down Weekend

Well, it was, wasn't it? All supporters, I'm sure, would've been well chuffed for Joe Gbode at the news last week that Gillingham had got his signature on a contract. Then to hear a day or three later we've got him back on loan again as the interesting part of the season approachesbrilliant, eh! Plus the arrival from Potters Bar Town of Kasim Aidoo - yes, that all made for quite a start to the weekend.

Following it from way down in South East Asia, midnight was approaching when I saw on Footballwebpages that Joe had put the U's 1-0 up......

Party pooped by Wingate & Finchley who levelled three minutes from the end. But United remain well in contention for a play off slot though it was all rather frustrating not to be a couple of points closer at 5pm (1am for some of us). Credit to Wingate & F, they've been on a decent run lately and look a pretty good prospect to still be playi ng Isthmian Premier football next season.

Twenty Seasons Back

This stage of the 2002 - 2003 season saw the U's well and truly embedded in a struggle to avoid going straight back to Southern League East after promotion from that league.

It had all started to go wrong after the FA Cup exit at Stevenage Borough on 16 November - a result which kicked off the death by a thousand cuts football experience that is a relegation battle.

The table below is what the grim end of the Southern Premier looked like after United's 1-1 draw with Dover Athletic on Ist March 2003 .......

And once again the big moment we all crave on a Saturday afternoon was captured for posterity - the still above was taken off David Wraight's video which you'll find on Facebook (Hastings United Fans page). Check it out and if it doesn't qualify for scrappy goal of the season, I'm not sure what will. But who cares.

That relentless force of gravity - horrendous. And relentless it was. 30 games, 3 lousy wins and that empty sensation never going away once you've dropped more three points adrift of safety.

Those other clubs - Havant & Waterlooville are now National South, Grantham - Northern Premier East, Hinckley Utd went bust, Hinckley LRFC now play in Northern Premier Midland as do Cambridge City and Halesowen, Folkestone we resumed rivalries with this season and Ilkeston are in Southern Premier Central.

United ended up trading places with Cambridge City and went down with Halesowen, Folkestone and Ilkeston. I so often think back to those grim times and they were only to get grimmer. Seeing our current position twenty years on - I know what I prefer.

Enfield Town Have Another Crack

Well, it was all a bit farcical on January 21st when having trekked down from North of the River after a thumbs up pitch inspection earlier that morning - Enfield Town on arrival were to find out it was all off - the match referee deemed the pitch unfit.

Nothing since then changes my opinion on pitch conditions this time of the year. If you've had a sub zero week leading up to the day before, the pitch is still rock hard on the Friday - then just call it off and reschedule.

Which is exactly what happened but only after Enfield Town and their supporters had made their way here on one of their longer distance treks. They've had to do the same again on a Tuesday evening.

My sympathy is tempered a little by recalling that the equivalent Tuesday evening game in that grim 02-03 campaign saw us undertaking a 360 mile round trip to Twerton Park where t he U's went down 1-0 to Bath City.

Today sees what could be the start of a make or break sequence of games - four of them against other sides with serious intentions regarding promotion. After this evening it's off to Bishop's Stortford who's 3-0 beating at Folkestone Invicta on Saturday saw us trade places with our Kent rivals. Then Billericay are here followed by a game at Canvey Island.

Putting right an 87th minute single goal defeat at Enfield Town earlier this season will be the best possible start. And all being well I should be here after flying back in late this morning from the Philippines.

Keep It In The Family

In Isthmian North, you'll find these two teaming up .....

Great combination eh. Interesting leaders in Isthmian North, Hashtag United who've only been around 6 or 7 years after being formed by a Youtube 'celebrity'. They went top last Saturday week after seeing off former leaders AFC Sudbury and the weekend's 8-1 away drubbing of Tilbury was their 19th league win on the trot. They had 850 in for that recent win against AFC Sudburywho supports a Youtube celebrity team? Quite a few it would seem. We may well find out for ourselves next season.

Ominous Gap Opening Up

That mouth drying gap I mentioned earlierwhere a win doesn't get you out of trouble - it's well and truly there for the bottom four .......

A nine point gap with eight games to playobviously even worse for those further behindleaves those four needing to get table-topping form going to avoid relegation. And how likely is that?

Kingstonian won a 6 pointer at Brightlingsea Regent at the weekend, Wingate & Finchley - er, less said about that the better and Margate saw

Something A Little Different

Check out @_ChrisPrior on Twitter to keep up with his excellent reports on the Southern Combination - or in old English, what was the Sussex County League.

Never seen a table presented like this.

continued from P09 off Corinthian Casuals. Not looking good for these four.