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The Stones began this game like
a nervous presenter rushing through their opening lines
but they finished it in a much more composed manner
after a Lyndon Rowland hat-trick saw them comfortably
progress past Eastbourne Town.
Following the disappointing performance for large parts
of the game against Whitstable Town Lloyd Hume and Alan
Walker decided to alter the formation back to 4-4-2
and restored Aaron Lacy, Lee Sperring and Nick Hegley
to the starting line-up.
It was a successful change as the Stones looked a lot
more in control at the back and with Nathan Paul and
Nick Hegley able to get forward a lot more, United created
numerous chances.
The first of these came with just 5 minutes gone when
Sam Tydeman fed Nick Hegley and his cross was headed
over by Lyndon Rowland. Jimmy Strouts should have then
hit the target with a header from a corner before Lee
Sperring found himself one on one with keeper Paul Starr
but the young striker put his shot the wrong side of
the post.
But Sperring redeemed himself with 40 minutes gone
when he played a good ball out wide to Hegley who swiftly
pulled the ball back to Rowland and he tapped the ball
in from close range.
After hardly threatening going forward for all of the
first half Eastbourne Town began the second period in
a more determined manner. From the kick-off Mark Goodwin
passed to Danny Andrews and with the Stones defence
struggling he had time to dig out a shot from 25 yards
that tested Dave Wietecha.
And for the next 20 minutes or so, the Stones seem
to struggle to raise the tempo of the game and this
had disappointed Hume who said: “ I was very pleased
with the performance for 70 minutes but I think we had
a spell for 20 minutes in the second half where they
got on top and we didn’t defend as well as we could.
And against better teams some times we will get punished
there.”
The Stones replaced Sperring with Mo Takaloo before
Mario Celaire saw his header cleared off the line and
Rowland put the rebound over the bar. But on 73 minutes,
Takaloo put Rowland through on goal and he confidently
rounded Starr before slotting the ball in from a tight
angle.
By now the visitors were playing well and the excellent
Aaron Lacy initiated a good move with a strong header
forward to Nathan Paul. Paul then released Takaloo who
was unfortunate to see his shot cannon off the bar and
when the ball got played back in his header went across
the face of goal.
But the Stones did get a deserved third goal with the
game in stoppage time. Lacy and substitute Simon Austin
combined well and Takaloo managed to flick up Lacy’s
cross and produce a shot which Starr couldn’t hold
onto. Rowland rounded off an accomplished performance
by reacting quickly to stab in his third of the afternoon.
Afterwards, Hume was unsurprisingly full of praise
for the Stones leading striker saying: “ Lyndon
has been fantastic. Anyone who has come and watched
us all season can’t question his work rate and
what he brings to our side. There were a lot of question
marks about us bringing him back and people frowned
over it but we knew if we got him right he would be
a great player, so all credit to him.”
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