A consummate performance yielded three points and a season double to Carshalton Athletic against promotion-chasing Hastings United, writes James Barrett
The final result had a lot to do with the fact we bossed possession throughout this game and that was evident from the off – Hastings hardly touched the ball for the first three minutes before Harry Doherty, their goalkeeper, spectacularly kept out a 30 yard drive by Jordan Higgs.
Michael Campbell and Zac Attwood – opposing number nines – both made threatening forward runs after that but the next good chance fell to Brendan Murphy-McVey, although he guided a low shot just the wrong side of a post.
We continued to be patient and play nice football but our next real opportunity came on the quarter hour mark via a more direct ball. Campbell latched on to a searching Paris Hamilton-Downes pass but his attempted lob from 15 yards beat both Doherty and the crossbar.
But we finally broke the deadlock two minutes later after Miller won possession on halfway and Campbell was put in on goal via Higgs and Murphy-McVey. The angle didn’t favour our man but his shot did beat the advancing Doherty to leave the incoming Tommy Bradford with a close range tap-in.
Luke Colquhoun’s first taste of action came on 20 minutes as Attwood was played in on goal but our man bravely blocked at his feet.
Campbell’s pace was again a threat five minutes later as first Matt Males cleared a cross into our box before Murphy-McVey clipped a weighted ball for our striker to chase. He ran free into the visitors’ box but the recovering Sean Ray just managed to get back and stop any shot.
So, for all our possession, we were failing to convert our chances but, on the other hand, our backline were keeping the robust forward runs of United quiet.
Following his crunching tackle in the lead up to our goal, Miller displayed some more defensive steel on 39 minutes. United’s Mitchell Dickensen managed to wriggle free down the left but our winger was on hand to rise highest and head the delivery away from our goal.
Doherty prevented us from going in to the break two-up after he turned a firm Bradford drive from 18 yards away one-handed on 43 minutes.
HALF-TIME: 1 – 0
The second-half began with Higgs executing a perfect sliding challenge on Billy Medlock as the midfielder looked to get a shot off inside our box, while Campbell and Miller were leading from the front in terms of harrying our opponents into mistakes.
But that pair should’ve really doubled our lead on 51 minutes after Miller pressured Robbie Deen, who was chasing back to his own goal, into losing the ball. Our winger closed in on the exposed Doherty before unselfishly squaring to the unmarked Campbell whom sadly failed to hit the target from inside the six yard box.
Hastings made a couple of subs and perhaps that let-off gave them a shot in the arm as Ricardo Panton just beat Jack McLean to a curling cross, Colquhoun did well to claim a free kick in amongst a crowd of players and Ollie Rowe headed a corner over our bar.
But the visitors equalised on 66 minutes as a weak clearance was turned into the path of Billy Medlock and he wrong-footed Colquhoun with a reverse shot that bulged the back of the net.
Boss Chris McGinn reacted by introducing Esteban Salgado and Ten-Grotenhuis for Miller and Peter Adeniyi, and our composure slowly returned before we struck again.
We broke from our box and Bradford and Murphy-McVey combined to get Salgado the ball on the left. The diminutive forward beat Robbie Deen with a neat trick and his deep cross was met by the head of Higgs for his seventh of the season.
United tried to rally again but their through balls were either wayward or comfortably dealt with by our defenders, and we created three more good chances before full-time.
Firstly, Murphy-McVey sent an inswinging cross in from the right on 86 minutes that Salgado took down. He shifted the ball onto his left foot but Doherty clawed away his effort from the top near corner.
The icing on our cake came added time as we defended a United corner and Higgs found Campbell with a 40 yard diagonal pass over halfway. Our forward foraged down the inside left before returning the favour as his team-mate, who hadn’t stopped running, and he kept his composure to beat Doherty with an angled hit from 15 yards.
And there was still time for Ten-Grotenhuis to venture forward and hit one from 20 yards but it struck a defender on its way through and flew just off target.
Next up: We travel to Chipstead on Saturday 19th March before East Grinstead United arrive at Colston Avenue on Saturday 26th March.
For full details of the club's activities go to ROBINS