28/11/09 v Charlton Park Lost 03 - 61

"Below strength H&B well beaten by Park"

A team that was put together late in the week due to a significant number of players being unavailable was always going to struggle against second placed opposition.

But Hastings & Bexhill Captain Roger Roberts was largely encouraged by the performance of a makeshift side in South London on Saturday.

He said "I was disappointed by the score, but I didn't realise it was that many until the end and I don't think it reflects it (the game) too much."

"There was a 10 or 15 minute period at the start of the second half where we let ourselves down and they got try after try after try"

"But until that point and after it I thought we played pretty well. Our main thing was that our pack was excellent and absolutely dominated."

"Our inexperience and lack of play together did show, but we were regularly breaking lines and making up-front tackles, and our covering tackles were brilliant as well."

Second from bottom H&B started this London Three South EAst match well, dominating the break down area and winning the majority of scrums.

Park missed an early penalty, but went ahead with a very well,executed try.

The hosts then started finding gaps out wide, and with aggressive running from their forwards, made it close to the halfway line from every kick off.

About 25 to 30 minutes into the game, a Park prop who had been under pressure all game appeared to punch Matt O'Connor, leaving him with an eye swollen to such an extent that he was unable to continue. The referee had a word with the player in question and he wasn't sent off.

H&B suffered a further blow when Tom Spatchurst came of at half time with injured ribs and they started the second half badly.

H&B did at least manage to create about 15 to 20 minutes of good pressure only for the last pass to always go astray and Park added a final try right at the end.

Bruce Steadman was named man of the match for an H&B side whose heads never dropped.

H&B: O'Conner, Davies, Spatchurst, Clifford, Redman, Cullingford, Umpleby, Piotrowski, Steadman, Hollingsworth, Whittington, Adams, Brooks, Campbell, Lee, Hopkins, Granville