Match report
The Dons’ unbeaten run in the Ryman League Premier stretches back to 4 September but, although they eventually ran out 3-1 winners at Pilot Field, they were given a real battle by a spirited Hastings United who pressed all over the park. Scott Kirkwood put the hosts ahead on 18 minutes with the pick of the goals, before Wimbledon’s Mark De Bolla restored parity from the penalty spot. Target man Daniel Webb’s brace sealed the points in the second half as superior quality, fitness and determination told.
Terry Brown introduced new signing Jon Main into the starting eleven, replacing Steve Ferguson. Tony Finn shifted to the right wing and De Bolla surprisingly to the left as the manager experimented once again with 4-4-2. Danny Knowles made his first appearance in goal having joined on loan from Grays Athletic the previous day.
The visitors would work the first opening inside 5 minutes. Luke Garrard found Tony Finn on the right and the mercurial winger cut inside his marker and curled a low left-footer that shaved the post.
Hastings’ keeper Lee Worgan was in action a minute later palming away Jon Main’s snapshot from the edge of the six yard area.
It wasn’t long before Finn was in behind the home defence again, picking out Daniel Webb whose header drifted wide.
The hosts had their first attempt on ten minutes. Lee Carey tried his luck from range but Knowles saw it all the way. However, Carey’s effort galvanised the ‘Us’ and they were soon putting the Dons on the back foot.
Ade Olorunda nodded wide from a corner, before Kirkwood put Hastings in front with a superbly controlled volley on the run from twelve yards, following a fine cross from Danny Ellis.
The Dons were suddenly scrambling to make it a contest as Hastings worked hard to force errors out of their opponents and poured forward at every opportunity. They turned up the pressure with a succession of corners but were unable to engineer concrete opportunities for a second.
The Dons hauled themselves back into the game and Mark De Bolla should have equalised on 34 minutes, latching on to Finn’s cross but finding Worgan in good form again, parrying the midfielder’s shot low to his right.
It was new boy Jon Main who got the tide turning. He robbed Jimmy Elford inside the box but was crudely hauled down leaving the referee no choice but to award the spot kick. Although Main took the penalties at Tonbridge, De Bolla was given the chance to atone for his earlier miss and coolly despatched the dead ball past Worgan.
The former Ebbsfleet man nearly doubled his tally, conjuring another fine save from the Hastings stopper with a cheeky effort that was heading for the top corner.
Before the break, Main and Finn slipped De Bolla in for a one-on-one with Worgan but the number 10 dragged his shot well wide. It seemed a pivotal opportunity and Dons fans were starting to wonder whether it was going to be ‘another one of those afternoons’.
This feeling was compounded when the Wombles started the second period very sluggishly. Hastings striker Sam Adams was given several chances to shoot unmarked from the edge of the area with two soaring into the stand behind the goal and the other being scuffed wide with the Dons’ defence at sixes and sevens.
Jon Main, ever the danger, forced Worgan to make his save of the afternoon - a rifled drive towards the top left corner that the keeper magnificently turned around the post. De Bolla was next to warm the keeper’s hands, firing a direct free kick goalbound that needed strong hands and quick reflexes to keep it out.
Adams continued to cause problems for the Dons’ backline racing into the right hand channel but Knowles was alert to the danger, nicking the ball off the lively forward’s toes before he could get his shot away.
With the game opening up Antony Howard was then denied by a fine defensive block three yards out after the Hastings defence failed to deal with Garrard’s free kick from the centre circle.
But it was Webb who finally put the Dons ahead on 68 minutes. De Bolla and Main worked a short corner on the left which eventually found its way to substitute Sam Hatton on the other side of the area. The young midfielder clipped the ball back into the danger area and Webb bundled the ball past Worgan for 2-1.
From then on there would only be one winner. Main teed up De Bolla who speculated from 25 yards but saw his attempt swerve away from the left hand post as it travelled.
Moments later, Hatton’s high quality cameo appearance was capped with a fine sliding tackle that set Michael Haswell on his way to sewing up the result. The full back delivered an early cross from deep that the 'Us' couldn’t clear and Webb ghosted in to somehow drill his shot through a sea of defenders before it ricocheted off the goalkeeper and nestled in the back of the net, confirming that Terry Brown’s side would take the points and climb to third in the table. |
