Match summary and exclusive photo gallery from Jon Smalldon (29/8/23).
Above: Goalmouth action as Hastings United (maroon) host Steyning Town. Photo: Jon Smalldon for Impetus.
Hastings United 3-2 Steyning Town
Two teams who lost their opening fixtures in Division One South of the London & South East Regional League (tier six) met at the Pilot Field and, whilst both will feel they did more than enough to record their first wins of the nascent season, in the end, all the point stayed in Hastings.
Steyning were 2-0 up inside ten minutes. In the first minute, a speculative shot from Amber Hazlewood got through the hands of Asha Moody in the Hastings net. Six minutes later a long-distance effort from Leigh-Anne Bridgewater doubled the visitors’ lead.
It was a long way back for the U’s and they were indebted to a calm head from captain Lauren Sharp on fourteen minutes as she pulled one back from close range after a scramble in the box. The hosts levelled before the break as player-of-the-match Megan McCready scored after Steyning failed to properly clear.
Steyning hit the crossbar three times in the second half but fell behind on 71 minutes as Brooke Nicholson-Rogan’s determination made sure to punish a series of errors that Ella Bates, in goal, and the defence in front of her, will not want to see again.
Teams: HASTINGS UNITED: Moody, McCready, Sharp, Muggeridge, Baker, Baitup, Nicholson-Rogan, A. Critchfield, M. Critchfield, Hannath, Tapp. Substitutes: Cartwright, McSweeney, Williams, Phillips.
Scorers: Sharp 14′, McCready 44′, Nicholson-Rogan 71′.
STEYNING TOWN: Bates, Cressey, Derham, Gooden, Bridgwater, Hogan, Hazlewood, Meehan, Collier, Bates, Rose. Substitutes: Currier, Norris, Pallant, Tunnicliffe, Starkey.
Scorers: Hazlewood 1′, Bridgewater 7′.
Referee: Owen Radley.
Attendance: 150.
Further photos from Jon Smalldon for Impetus at The Pilot Field
impetusfootball.org 