Hastings director appeals for patience

Four of the players who started last night’s (Wednesday’s) 1-1 draw away to Cray Wanderers have come through the club’s academy and several others were among the substitutes.

Nessling said: “The last two years we’ve brought in a lot of experienced players from all over Kent and it’s not got us promotion.

“Therefore we’ve decided to try it a different way, even though we’ve still got a very healthy budget for the division.

“We’re trying to blood these youngsters and it’s going to take time. We need all of our senior players to play amongst them and at the moment we’ve not got them all available (due to injuries) - and that makes it difficult.

“We’ve started to get some product out of the academy and we are progressing, but what we need is for our supporters to be patient.

“They wanted us to get a younger, much more locally-based team and we’re trying to do that, but it’s not going to happen overnight in terms of the development of these young players.

“Within the club we’re showing patience, and we would like our supporters to bear with us and allow us to develop these young players.”