GUT FEELING SIMON STODDART’S

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

Harsh

Yea, that 3-1 defeat alongside the Thames Estuary on Saturday is still a little hard to accept. That sequence of four big play off target games saw us at Canvey Island who have been on an exceptional run of form with their previous game seeing them win 2-0 at Lewes - The Rooks first home loss of 22/23. We, of course, had our momentum disrupted by the Billericay postponement last Saturday - immensely frustrating watching everyone else get their games in as we dropped to 9th.

The U's contributed fully to a decent game which featured two sides who had come up the previous season. Canvey Island won the Isthmian North play offs after finishing runners up behind Aveley who have also more than adapted to the higher standard.

performance from a squad missing several key men. No reward - yes, harsh.

Something A Little Different

This is Craig Stone finishing off a corner to put United ahead on 31 minutes. Decent first half on a compact pitch in a low slung stadium, the U's deserved that interval lead. Canvey were better in the 2nd half but our lads were doing fine and it took a great long range effort to see us go behind with a late penalty rubbing it in. All this after Freddie Legg had a decent case for a penalty turned down to the disgust of the sizeable U's contingent. A more than decent

All the talk is of yes to digital, no - stick with the printed version - but how about this for a programme? Brilliant idea.

SEASON DEFINING?

Mused on this two or three weeks ago. 4 big games coming up after the frustrating draw here with Wingate & Finchley. More frustration as one of them - the only one in the division - Billericay here - postponed. A waterlogged pitch is a rare animal here these days but there it was - game off. Grrrrrrrr! now and, of course, who can forget the football team's European Championship campaign last season. Wrexham's Women's team won the Welsh League recently - deciding game seen by 9,511 spectators.

So, three games it was - D W L. One of each. That win - what a win.

And here at Hastings Utd, Women's football has taken off recently. With a youngster's academy like set-up which - give it time - will see girls making their way up the age stages to the first team.

The comeback at Bishop's Stortford. Two down with 17 minutes left, Freddie gets us back into it then in the dying minutes, two great goals from Sam Adams and Ben Pope. Pandemonium behind the goal after the dugout emptied (like Sittingbourne away last season) and players, subs, anyone connected with the club - and supporters, enjoyed Ben's goal. That curling effort from the corner of the box was a carbon copy of what he tried against Enfield - a top class save resulting. Not this time.

Credits

Special mention to all of you who capture United's progress on video and stills. Scott White, Joe Knight and Neo Bridges (I managed to have a chat with Neo at Canvey) plus from behind the goal - Pete Grain, Howard Ralph and John Wills who, jointly, have preserved some classic moments. Marvellous what you can do with a half decent photo edit app - grab stills off videos etc etc. Keep up the good work, y'all!

Come On Girls

No doubt about it. Women are making big incursions into what was thought to be exclusive territory for us blokes. My top sport is Rugby Union and the England Women's team is right up there, we have a more than decent cricket set up

This is well worth a look via the link in Mel Elliott's tweet. There is so much good that can come out of a football club bringing on local talent at all age groups and the girls U12s are reaping the benefits.

An onside local authority should take note of what United are doing in the locality with our young uns. Let's have no more of this talk of having to relocate out of Hastings, eh, HBC?

Today

That memorable 21/22 season - memorable for today's visitors as much as it was for us after