Hastings United boss ‘very pleased’ to return to winning ways

Hastings United manager Chris Agutter was ‘very pleased’ to return to winning ways yesterday (Saturday).
Hastings United manager Chris Agutter. Picture courtesy Scott WhiteHastings United manager Chris Agutter. Picture courtesy Scott White
Hastings United manager Chris Agutter. Picture courtesy Scott White

After three draws and a loss in their previous four Bostik League South East Division games, Hastings reached the 50-point mark with a 2-1 victory at home to Faversham Town.

Agutter said: “I’m very pleased. It’s been an interesting few games because I think we’ve been playing really well.

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See also: * Hastings United up to second after hard-fought win* Hastings United boss: We’ve got to embrace the challenge* Hastings United investigate alleged incident between player and fan“We probably played better against Horsham (with whom Hastings drew 1-1 on February 5) than we did today if anything, which is credit to Faversham, where we’ve drawn against Horsham and managed to get the three points today.

“I’m pleased that all the positivity around what we’ve been doing performance-wise has been backed up by three points.”

Hastings led through a Sam Adams penalty and although Faversham levelled later in the first half, Daniel Ajakaiye scored a delightful winner 20 minutes into the second period.

“We conceded playing out from the back so I’ll no doubt get slaughtered for that,” continued Agutter. “I’m pleased because we didn’t change after that.

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“We kept going, we kept banging the drum, Sam Cruttwell after that produced one of the best passes of the game, probably one of the best passes of the season, to put Daniel in for the winner.

Hastings United manager Chris Agutter. Picture courtesy Scott WhiteHastings United manager Chris Agutter. Picture courtesy Scott White
Hastings United manager Chris Agutter. Picture courtesy Scott White

“We kept playing it our way. Even when it broke down, we kept beating the press, after a couple of errors early doors.

“I think we did enough to win the game to be honest. I thought the final ball wasn’t great. I thought we arrived in and around the 18-yard box really well, but I just thought our decision-making wasn’t the best. But I thought we certainly deserved to win.

“Faversham are a good side, they’ve got really good players. We just felt if we could get through the early period of the game unscathed, we could come on strong late on, like we have the two previous times we’ve played Faversham. But it was a tough day at the office; they made us earn every point we got today.”

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Bostik League South East Division top half (played-points): 1 Cray Wanderers 26-65 (+38 goal difference), 2 HASTINGS UNITED 26-50 (+23), 3 Ashford United 25-48 (+28), 4 Horsham 25-48 (+18), 5 Haywards Heath Town 25-45 (+13), 6 Whyteleafe 25-41 (+14), 7 Hythe Town 26-39 (+7), 8 VCD Athletic 24-38 (+3), 9 Ramsgate 26-34 (+5), 10 Phoenix Sports 25-32 (-5).