Agutter: We've lost a game we should've won

Hastings went down 3-2 at home to Hythe Town in Bostik League Division One South, leaving Agutter to rue missed chances once again.

He said: “Chance after chance after chance goes begging, good chances as well, they’re not half-chances. Jack Dixon has one in the first half where has to score, but to be fair to Jack, I thought he was outstanding - the best player on the pitch comfortably.

“I think that was the difference between the two teams. They had one good chance, which was their third goal, their first goal was a great finish from the edge of the box, the second goal was a ‘worldie’ free kick.

“They’ve punished us, whereas we’ve just missed so many chances again, which is very frustrating. It’s two more dropped points definitely.”

Agutter felt that the early departure of captain Sam Adams to injury was a ‘big loss’, but that his team ought to have had the strength in depth to have coped.

“It was frustrating because Sam’s been excellent since he came back to the club full stop, but since the Thamesmead game (on January 20) his performance has gone up a few notches,” continued Agutter.

“It was a big loss for us, but his loss should be someone else’s opportunity, which certainly wasn’t taken today. We should have enough quality and enough strength in depth to deal with those losses to be honest, and today we didn’t.

“The performance was just alright. I think that maybe shows how far we’ve come. We’ve been nowhere near as good as we have been recently, we’ve been nowhere near as fluent, nowhere near as dominant on the ball.

“It was a lot more like basketball today, end to end - which I don’t really like - and we still should’ve won.

“It wasn’t great, but you’ve got to give credit to Hythe. They did very well, they made the game messy, they definitely came here to get a goal and then shut up shop, which we helped them with to be honest.”

Hastings were given two dubious penalties in the final 20 minutes, although Agutter didn’t think either of them should’ve been awarded.

“Ridiculous,” he added. “The referee’s not the reason we lost, however he was horrendous, really poor. Worryingly, where we’ve been in his ear for a while, it’s actually worked and he’s given us two penalties which were never penalties really.

“I think that sums the day up - we’ve had two penalties, missed one and scored one. It was carnage really in that last 10 minutes.”

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