Not a great game of football by a long chalk (in fact, as a spectacle, quite poor) - but what the heck, who cares, 3 points are 3 points. For a team in 2nd place and chasing Maidstone for the title and automatic promotion, Hastings were surprisingly poor and rarely threatened the Darts' goal. Darts didn't really play THAT much better than on Monday. Still the boot anywhere down the field from defence, not a great deal more on-the-deck passing or midfield linking play (and much of what there was was mispassed). But at least TB seems to have put a bit more steel and pride into the team, which probably just about sufficed to swing the match our way. No Tommy Osborne at all (Brad Potter instead - solid performance), and Ryno on the bench (along with James C) the whole 90 minutes, replaced by Carl Bruce, who had quite a good game - and more importantly scored the winner. The referee was poor (yet again!): very fussy and very inconsistent. It was not a dirty game at all, yet he was forever calling players over to be talked to and managed to dish out 5 yellow cards, only one of which was for a foul (and a fairly innocuous one at that). Richard A got booked for kicking the ball away when his leg was already swinging for the kick when the referee blew the whistle. The ref was blowing for the least bodily contact, so I was surprised he let our 1st goal stand. Long high ball into the box, the goalie (who was a bit of a flapper all match) punches it away under pressure (and contact?) from Jay, the ball drops to Cassie who lobs it back into the empty net while the keeper is still picking himself up. The Hastings equaliser had the crowd buzzing, but I couldn't understand how/why their forward (Sam Adams), who was put in by a good pass out wide left , managed to waltz his way past five half-hearted attempts at a tackle into a clear 1-on-1 with Kess. But where Darts did perform better than on Monday was that they were more positive once they had been pegged back - especially after Haffie and Briggo came on. And even better, after what proved to be the winner when it came - a very well-placed header from Carl Bruce from a free kick - Darts didn't sit back and hang on. They had clearly decided (or been instructed) that attack was the best form of defence and were constantly putting the home defence under pressure. No immediately obvious candidate for MOM, so I'll have a think before deciding who gets my vote. Overall marks: artistic impression: 4/10; grit & determination: 7/10.
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