From 0-9 to 1-1 – Hastings United’s woeful weekend turns into a better week
It was certainly a mixed week for Hastings United – with a woeful 9-0 defeat at Hendon being followed by a huge improvement in a 1-1 draw at home to Carshalton.
The loss – United’s heaviest for years – left the managerless outfit in the Isthmian premier division relegation zone and stand-in boss Sean Ray sidn’t mince his words afterwards.
But things were much better on Turesday night when United took a point from Carshalton’s visit to the Pilot Field.
At Hendon, Niko Muir scored five and Hastings were three down in 19 minutes. The visitors had 11 minutes plus injury time after Hendon’s ninth to avoid conceding double figures.
Afterwards, furious Ray said: “It shouldn’t be me doing this (the post-match interview) – it should be the players. They’re the ones that have turned up here and produced that. One hundred per cent it should be the players standing here now, talking, explaining, because I can’t explain that performance.
"I can’t dress it up any way other than to say it’s probably the most humiliating I’ve seen, whether that’s kids’ football, adult football, parks football, that I’ve ever been involved in.
"I was petrified every time they got the ball near our half. We just didn’t look like we could, or wanted to, defend as a group. It was a half-hearted effort and unfortunately we’ve got a group of football players in there who talk a very, very good game but at times fail to deliver.
"Everything that was asked of them, it was the opposite today. They didn’t follow anything that we asked for from the start of the game and it was a real, real tough watch.
"I’ll apologise on behlaf of all of the players for that performance to everyone who made the effort to get here. I can’t do anything else other than that. They (the fans) deserve that and they continue to stick with us. The players don’t realise how lucky they are sometimes.
"Te support we get, especially when we play at home, is incredible compared to most teams in this league or at this level of football. They’re in a privileged position and I think some of them take that for granted.
"I think some of them probably don’t care enough, it’s attitude, mentality, desire, I think some of them need to question whether they want to be here. If players son’t want to be here they are free to leave. And that frees us up to bring someone else in who might actually want to be here. I’m running out of words to say.
"Hendon were everything that I wanted us to be. They were bright, engaging – every time we got the ball there was contact on us, everything.
"I can accept losing games of football but I can’t accept that effort today. When you look at Hastings United, in non-league terms it’s a massive, massive football club, and the players are lucky to be involved with it and the plans we’ve got moving forward … they don’t seem to realise how lucky they are.
"It’s a short career, football, and if that’s what they’re going to produce week in week out, it will be even shorter for some of them. We get great support and now it’s up to us to make sure we put today right.”
After Tuesday night’s draw, a game which United might easily have won, the mood was very different.
Ray said: “It had to be different from Saturday. First half, they probably controlled the game more and looked dangerous but we looked a real threat on the break. The boys got the basics right, we asked them to strip it back – we didn’t need to over-complicate the game – strip it back to basics, get all those small details right, and they were fantastic at that tonight. We couldn’t be pretty tonight. It was about a response from Saturday.
"I thought first half we were okay, we probably had the better chances and Louie didn’t really have a save to make. They put some dangerous balls in the box but we dealt with them well and dealt with the second ball well, and in the second half I thought we had the better chances.
"We’ve had a few efforts and I don’t think they had a shot second half. We defended the box really, really well, early contacts, dealt with the second balls – they got the basics right. And that’s what it’s about.
"We deserved a point, minimum.”
Ray was pleased to see young Will Harley score to give Hastings an early lead. “For a young lad he’s really strong boy. He’s big and he’s a threat – we just need to get him games now. He’s here for four weeks but depending on what happens there is an option for longer if that’s what needs to happen. He wants to be here and he showed that in his performance.
"We trained on Monday in response to Saturday because we didn’t want tonight to be the first contact we’d had with the players. We got them in, we had a chat, we got the basics done in training, and they responded tonight. But it was easy to respond tonight because things couldn’t get any worse. Tonight was the easy game to respond, now they have to match that week in, week out.
"They’ve shown they care, they’ve shown they can do it, they’ve shown they can get the basics right. Now we have to make sure we do that in training, games, recovery sessions.”
United host Dartford tomorrow and Ray hopes for more of what he saw on Tuesday night. He told fans: “Don’t give up on us.”
Ray added: "Saturday was such a surreal experience for everyone. It was probably the lowest point of in my football career – I’ve never experienced anything like that. It was like an out of bosy experience. The response has been good. I’ve had some really good football people contact me and they’ve shown me there’s a lot of care in football – a lot of ex-Hastings people have been in touch."