Pre-Season Friendly
The Saffrons, Eastbourne
Admission: £5.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 250 (estimate)
Having not had to go into the office today, and getting back early from a customer visit in London, I felt suitably refreshed to make my way to The Saffrons this evening for this attractive looking friendly game between two well supported clubs.
Eastbourne Town finished in ninth place in the Southern Combination League Premier Division, whereas Hastings United finished in eighth place in the Isthmian League Premier Division in their first season since promotion. It has been quite a tubulent time for Hastings in 2023, losing their chief executive Billy Wood, then highly rated manager Chris Agutter, replaced by Paul Barnes, which has inevitaby prompted a high turnover in players since, with the pool seeming to come more from London than locally based players - always a slightly worrying sign.
On a pleasantly mostly sunny evening, with a good crowd in attendance with a sizeable and vocal contingent from Hastings, Hastings took the lead on 11 minutes, when a ball down the left wing found the run of Knory Scott, who ran to the byline and outmuscled a defender before laying the ball back for a triallist to take a touch before strike the ball low acoss the keeper and into the far bottom right corner of the net. They scored again in the 27th minute with a super individual goal by Scott, running onto a diagonal ball over the top, before showing good footwork to get past a defender, taking a couple of touches to get into a more central position before stroking the ball past the keeper. The home side got on the scoresheet in the 35th minute when a free kick was played into the box and after a couple of deflections, the ball found its way into the net courtesy of an own goal.
Hastings scored their third four minutes after the restart with another very good goal, this time Scott feeding Femi Akinwande from the left wing to the edge of the area, and after taking the ball across the area, Akinwande fired the ball low into the bottom left corner from just outside the area. And after Hastings switched most of their team in one go in the 63rd minute, they scored their fourth when John Ufuah sprinted along the byline before being fouled in the box, earning his side a penalty, which Ufuah duly converted. Eastbourne Town scored their second in the 66th minute when a corner was swung in, the Hastings keeper could only get his fingertips to the ball above him to faintly deflect it towards an Eastbourne player beyond the far post, who hooked the ball back across goal, and Nathan Hover headed the ball home.
Video footage of the Hastings goals can be viewed via the following links :-
https://twitter.com/hastingsufc/status/1681749984016834560?s=20
https://twitter.com/hastingsufc/status/1681750614668083201?s=20
https://twitter.com/hastingsufc/status/1681751237069348870?s=20
https://twitter.com/hastingsufc/status/1681751804814540803?s=20
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