Horsham completed a disastrous Bank Holiday programme with defeat against a Hastings United side who recovered from a poor start to make it three wins in a row with this, their first home success of the season. Even the boost of a second minute goal from Ben Andrews wasn’t enough to inspire the Hornets who allowed their hosts to equalise within minutes of falling behind and, although Hastings enjoyed some moments of good fortune with their two second half goals, boss John Maggs had few complaints about the final scoreline.

“It’s been a miserable weekend for us,” Maggs conceded. “3-1 is a bad defeat but I felt that we were better than we were against Canvey on Saturday. Hastings were just physically stronger than us. We put a bit more effort in but I was still disappointed with a few of my players who just didn’t seem to be up for it. We seem to have started playing route just lately so we’ve got to get back to playing our game, moving the ball quicker from the back. I felt Hastings were a bit fortunate with two of their goals, a couple of ricochets that fell kindly for them, but they put them away very well. We’ve got to bounce back from this, starting with Carshalton next Saturday. They are another side who have had a couple of bad results lately so we need to try and capitalise on that.”

Injuries once again enforced a changed line-up for the Hornets, with Tony Nwachukwu making his first start of the season, and there was a debut for former Sutton United man Delando Smith in place of injured full-back James Nicholls who was joined on the list of absentees by Gary Charman (back), Jack Page (hip) and Steve Davies (away on business). Hastings showed just one change to the eleven who started at Cray Wanderers at the weekend, Michael Phillips replacing Steve Elliott who dropped to the bench, and both sides had players lining up against their former employers with Russell Eldridge coming up against Lee Carey in the middle of the park up.

Maggs had labelled Saturday’s second half display against Canvey as ‘abysmal’ and demanded a reaction from his players so he would have been delighted when they took the lead after just two minutes’ play. Breaking quickly from a corner, Andrews connected with a slick through ball from Claude Seanla to send a powerfully struck right-footed shot past Greg Nessling at his near post for his second goal in successive matches. But the visitors weren’t ahead for long as, straight from the restart, Sam Page conceded a needless free kick on the edge of their own box that was smashed home by Michael Phillips for his first goal in Hastings colours.

The equaliser gave Hastings a huge boost as they looked to give the Pilot Field faithful their first points of the season. Ade Olorunda, two goal hero in their win at Cray, muscled his way past Smith and threaded the ball across the box to find Sam Adams but his clever dink over Rob Tolfrey also beat the crossbar.

The Hornets looked like they hadn’t given up hope of finding another goal in the game but a succession of half chances went begging. Firstly, a Lee Carney corner was met by Andrews who rose well to head over the bar. Carney was again the orchestrator in midfield as his crossfield ball to Mark Knee was helped on to Alex Haddow who teased left back Jimmy Elford and managed to get a cross in with his left foot but, again, Andrews had risen well but failed to find the target with his header.

Phillips was a danger from free kicks and, after already conceding, Tolfrey looked determined to not let another set piece crash in the net behind him as he scrambled to his near post to hold on to Phillips’ smart effort.

Either side could have been heading for the dressing room with a lead at the interval but, as has so often been the case in recent games, neither had shown the required accuracy in front of goal and the scores remained level.

H/T Hastings 1 – 1 Horsham

Sadly, any hopes the travelling contingent might have had that their side would kick on after the break came to nought as Horsham failed to produce an effort on target throughout the entire second half. By contrast, the hosts began the second period in determined mood and Horsham found themselves stretched on a quick breakaway attack by the Us when Phillips spread the ball into space, allowing Liam Upton to run at Smith but his teasing shot crept narrowly over the bar.

Hastings edged in front on 53 minutes when a mishit shot by Tim Olorunda found centre half Scott Ramsay who thumped the ball past Tolfrey from the edge of the box. Horsham weren’t out of it, however, and they looked certain to level things on the hour but Anthony Acheampong volleyed over from four yards when Nessling showed uncertainty in coming to collect a Carney corner. Hastings then buried any chance the visitors might have had of rescuing something from the game when poor defending from Acheampong let in Sam Adams who rounded Tolfrey and passed into an empty net with little over ten minutes remaining.

The Hornets looked a beaten side after this and numerous set pieces went begging. Jack Lyons looked bright after coming on in place of Nwachukwu, looking determined to rescue something from the game, but his solo effort was not enough to redeem his team mates and Hastings hung on to collect a deserved first home win of the season.

NEXT MATCH: v Carshalton Athletic (h) Saturday 5th September ko 3pm