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reporter: Jim Bravery
The diehard fans, who had chosen to ignore the dubious appeal of the
televised Champions League matches, were rewarded as Horsham and
Hastings served up a feast of football that saw Horsham achieve a rare
success in a competition in which they have progressed past the third
round only once in the past twenty years. Both sides contributed to an
entertaining ‘derby’ but it was the Hornets who emerged victorious,
withstanding some early pressure from the visitors before taking
advantage of the dismissal of Kevin Rose to record their fifth
successive win to the delight of manager John Maggs. As with it’s
‘professional’ equivalent, the League Cup has become a much maligned
competition that serves, in many cases, merely to allow managers the
opportunity to blood fringe players but Maggs’ belief that a winning
run instils a winning mentality saw him make few changes to his side
and he reaped the benefits as they recorded their biggest ever home
victory against Hastings.
Maggs felt that his team were unfortunate to fall to a 1-0 defeat when
these two sides met at the Pilot Field just over three weeks ago but
his players made amends with four quality goals with Gary Charman
delighting in claiming the fourth, a diving header, to register his
first goal since fracturing his cheekbone in that early league
encounter. There was a physical side to this meeting, too, with both
sides showing that they weren’t going to go through the motions on a
cold October evening, and referee Lennard administered cautions to
Sean Ray and Sam Adams while Rose, Hastings’ goal scoring hero from
September’s 1-0 win, turned villain when shown the red card
after tangling with Lee Carney on 55 minutes. Rose, in truth nothing
more than a makeshift striker, had a night to forget after his first
half profligacy had failed to turn some good Hastings possession into
more tangible reward.
The Arrows, showed six changes to the side held by East Thurrock
United at the weekend but created the first chance of the night when,
in only the 3rd minute, Alan Mansfield was forced in to a fine
reaction save from Russell Eldridge after being put into space by Sam
Adams before the reshuffled Horsham defence had time to settle. The
hosts responded when former Hastings player Carl Rook got on the end
of Nigel Brake’s cross but his shot was blocked at the expense of a
corner. The first goal of the night came after just eight minutes but
it was a surprising name that broke the deadlock with Tom
Graves collecting Carney’s pass out wide on the right and, cutting inside to the angle of
the penalty area, letting fly with a right foot shot across ‘keeper Lee
Worgan to score his first goal since April. Skipper Kevin Hemsley,
back in the starting line-up for the first time in four matches,
almost let United back in when his poor clearance fell to the feet of
Rose who held off the challenge of Stuart Myall and sent in a shot
that was only parried by the alert Mansfield and team mate Andy Howard
was on hand to fly hack the ball to safety. A minute later, the
unmarked Adams could only direct his header inches wide of the upright
at the far post with the static defenders ball watching. The visitors’
promising start continued when Danny Ellis struck a post but Ray was
lucky to only see yellow after a reckless challenge on Rook that
prompted a series of niggly fouls that might have been more harshly
dealt with by a stronger referee than Mr Lennard and the Arrows bench
were given a stiff lecture after telling the official how to run the
game.
Graves’ attempted pass to John Westcott was telegraphed to Hastings’
best player, Eldridge, whose speed took him away from defenders before
delivering an inviting cross that went right across the home penalty
area, defying a boot to touch it in, and finally ending up at Rose's
feet but, once again, his shot was wild and high when well placed.
Hastings were seeing a lot of the ball and, with both wide men
creating chances, they had further opportunities to draw level but
they almost went two goals behind when a long clearance from Howard
found Rook at least a yard offside but the resulting shot was well
saved by Worgan. The temperature was cranked up another notch when
Rose's crude body check on Carney sent the stocky Hornets midfielder
into orbit, the Hastings man extremely fortunate to only receive a
lecture and the Horsham bench were given the same treatment for making
their feelings known to the match official.
Rook forced Worgan into a diving save on the half hour mark after a
patient build up that he himself had started and, almost immediately,
Rhys Whyborne was replaced by Tom Poole with Rose now dropping back
into his more natural defensive role. Myall was poleaxed by another
reckless challenge that earned Adams a yellow card and had the home
bench on their feet once more and Myall almost made the visitors pay
for that misdemeanour as he was allowed time to "waltz" into the area
and unleash a bullet like shot that flew off of Simon Austin and out
for a goal kick. There was just time for a long shot from Adams to go
well wide of the goal before the whistle went for half time with the
home side maintaining their slender advantage.
H/T: Horsham 1 Hastings United 0
Hastings made an early switch after the break, taking off Jimmy Elford
and replacing him with Lee Carey, but United seemed to be at sixes and
sevens with the change and the home team made them pay for their lack
of concentration when Jacob
Mingle, who had been unusually
quiet for most of the first half, suddenly brought the game to life in
the 51st minute when another spectacular shot from outside the area
caught Worgan a few yards off of his line, the ‘keeper able only to
stand and watch as the ball sailed over his head and just under the
bar to put the home side two up. Graves committed a foul on the edge
of his own area and Horsham had to thank Howard for getting in the way
of Eldridge's goalbound blockbuster, the resulting clearance sending
Carney charging towards the Hastings area only for the previously
booked Rose to bring his opponent crashing to the floor and leaving Mr
Lennard little option than to brandish the red card to the errant
player and skipper Ray was lucky to escape censure for his subsequent verbal
bashing of the official. As the direct free kick was being lined up,
all the big strikers of the ball - Carney, Brake, Myall and
Mingle
- were showing interest but it was the latter who smashed a majestic
strike into the top left corner to give the Hornets a three goal
cushion after 56 minutes. The visitors, now down to ten men, were
given the run around for the rest of the match as the home team’s
passing had them chasing shadows but, to their credit, they did keep
chasing and, with so many players pushing forward, might easily have
sneaked a goal back.
Worgan was put under tremendous pressure but managed to make good
saves from Westcott and Brake although Mingle should have
clinched his hat-trick when following up on Brake’s shot but, instead,
drove his shot well over the bar. Westcott had another effort cleared
off the line as the home side dominated with Myall getting another
shot in after neat footwork had taken him past a couple of defenders.
With Rook only needing one more caution that would rule him out of the
F.A. cup tie with AFC Wimbledon, Maggs decided to withdraw him and
Austin from the fray, putting Charman and Saturday's match winner Lewis
Taylor on for the last 23 minutes. Sadly, Taylor's gradual comeback
from injury only lasted 5 minutes before being replaced by Yinka
Salaam after feeling a 'twinge' as he turned and Maggs took the wise
precaution of substituting him without delay. Just prior to this change,
Hastings had swapped Danny Ellis with Nima Cham and, almost
immediately, United had a chance to reduce the arrears as ex Hornet
Scott Kirkwood curled a good effort towards the bottom corner that
went narrowly wide with Mansfield beaten.
For the next 12 minutes it was all Horsham. Brake skipped past the
static Danny Spice, pulling the ball back from the goal line but just
behind Charman but the replacement striker didn't have to wait long to
get on the score sheet. Good interplay between Salaam and Westcott
gave the former a chance to whip in a teasing cross that the diving
Charman
headed past Worgan's desperate dive and into the far corner to seal an
emphatic victory for the home side in the 81st minute. The Hornets
continued to make chance after chance but failed to breach Worgan's
goal again as John Bradley's impressive headed clearance in his own
penalty area robbed Charman while, at the other end, he had the last
effort on the Hornets goal but his shot was blocked.
It should be said that if this performance had been put in at Hastings
in the league game then Horsham would surely be sitting on top of the
table instead of second but, with the lads being given Thursday night
off from training after tonight's exertions, we look forward to
Saturday's home encounter with Wealdstone and the chance to claim
another three points.
NEXT MATCH: v Wealdstone (h)
Saturday 6th October ko 3.00pm |
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