Hastings made the long trip from the coast to South London on Saturday afternoon, for their match against play-off hunting Cray Valley Paper Mills in the Isthmian Premier League.

Cray Valley play at the Artic Stadium in Eltham, South East London, close to the A20 and the South Circular Road. The ground is situated on the edge of a huge 1930’s housing estate, in what was once King Henry VIII’s favourite hunting estate at Eltham Palace. The pitch is a generous size and in good condition considering the gloomy wet winter experienced in these parts, and on a warm, sunny early spring day it was well set for a good game of football.

With limited numbers to choose from, Danny Searle named a patchwork team of new and old players, with a sparse subs bench. Meanwhile the home team were close to full strength.

The first half settled into a well matched affair, Cray Valley starting with plenty of possession, but not being able to turn it into a threat. Their game plan centred on a muscular approach to winning the midfield and then moving the ball wide to either wing for crosses into the box. On this day that did not yield much in the way of returns, as Louis Rogers in the United goal positioned himself well all afternoon and cleared the majority with decisive punches.

Hastings nearly had an early breakthrough when a long ball out of defence caught the Cray Valley defence napping, and offered Davide Rodari a half chance, but he put his shot wide. They continued to favour the quick release long ball to put pressure on the Cray Valley defence, while the home team preferred more passing and movement, but the two teams largely cancelled each other out for the half.

After the break this pattern continued, with the United defence continuing to swallow up Cray Valley’s crosses comfortably, until a moment of decisive quality on 58 minutes brought the game to life.

Ligendza made an excellent robbing tackle in his own half and saw the opportunity to burst forward down the right wing with a rampaging run, using his size to brush off the challenges. His long cross was played back across the box where Dogan was perfectly placed to drive the ball home from 20 yards to put United 1-0 ahead.

This inevitably opened the game up, as Cray Valley could ill afford to drop points as the race for the play-offs had become much more open than it had seemed a few weeks ago, with both The Millers and Dover Athletic looking over their shoulders at several teams below them who were eyeing a big finish to the season. Similarly, in their perilous position Hastings knew the value of a win, and to their credit did not fall into the trap of sitting on their lead, continuing to take the fight to the home side.

Eventually the stuttering Cray Valley team found the goal they needed, with a looped cross falling to Tom Beere in the area, who made it 1-1 with a slightly mishit shot off the post in the 81st minute.

The home side then turned up the heat for the last ten minutes, but their crosses and corners continued to be handled or punched proficiently by Rogers who, alongside a committed defence, had not been greatly troubled by this tactic all afternoon. As full time approached, a Cray Valley direct free kick on the edge the box was blocked by the United wall, a home team penalty shout for a tussle in the box was waved away, and the game ended 1-1.

The result was fair as neither team established any real dominance, but both managers will view it as three points which got away, with a draw not really serving the purpose for either, given their league positions. The healthy attendance of 293 (for a team averaging 120 two seasons ago) will also have been entertained but probably feel a little bit empty for what might have been.

At the top of the Isthmian Premier table it seems likely that the automatic promotion place will be a scrap between Billericay and Dartford, which is the least they should expect with the resources at their disposal. The other play off places ought to be filled by Horsham, Cray Valley and Dover, although their heels are being nipped by the chasing pack so there’s not much room for a blip in form.

At the bottom of the table, Bowers and Pitsea look doomed, Billericay knocking in another nail today with a 4-1 win. It’s also still a tough call for Hastings and Bognor on 25 points with a 10 point gap to safety, while Hendon on 30 have a bit more going for them.

However, Hastings have two games in hand and if they can repeat the resilience and determination of today’s performance, they may have a chance to break their poor run of one win in twelve and dig themselves out of trouble.

My MOTM – Louis Rogers