Another Saturday, another away game. This week we travelled up the A21 to Hawkhurst United looking to extend our fledgling lead at the top of the ESFL Premier Division.

Going into the match we were again without several players; Salmons, Ford, Saunters (injured), McMinigal, Greenaway, Turner (unavailable). Hankinson continued in goal; the backline was unchanged from last weeks victory against Bexhill Town. Harman dropped back in alongside A.Davies with Lennard returning to the starting eleven and Slater making his first start for the club.

With conditions wet and windy, we started the game with the wind against us which immediately played havoc on a ‘somewhat’ sloped pitch. From the beginning it was clear that Hawkhurst would attempt to exploit that and began to play long balls over the defence which were being picked up by the wind, making it slightly difficult for Tomlin and Greenfield to deal with. Regardless of the wind, the defence were rarely troubled and that would set the tone for the whole game.

After 15 minutes of getting used to conditions we started to play our game, keeping the ball on the floor, which would be key to getting a result with the wind being so strong. Without playing anywhere near our best football we were ahead after an almost textbook move. A long ball over the defence was dealt with by Frazer-bates who played the ball inside to Greenfield. His ball up the line to Fletcher was controlled well and a neat one-two with A. Davies allowed Fletcher the space in behind and his perfect ball to the back post was collected by Slater who dully converted to give us the lead.

With the wind in our sails we started, in spells to play decent football and the partnership or Lennard and Kidman was causing the Hawkhurst defence no end of problems. It would be the latter who would double our lead. Good work from Lennard, whose running of the lines was immense all game allowed Kidman to pick up the ball in the box and neatly finish into the bottom corner. We now had our tails up and Kidman almost immediately doubled his tally when his chip on the goalkeeper just fell the wrong side of the crossbar. With half time soon approaching we were creating chance after chance and Kidman again almost converted from a corner, his header going over by mere inches.
However, we were to go into the break three goals to the good. Some good work from Harman, who unpicked locks all game in the midfield led to a neat ball into the box which fell to Kidman to slot in his second.

Going into the second half we were aware that 3-0 was a precarious score and we couldn’t relax or become complacent. The next goal would go far to determine how the game would play out. We wanted it!

From kick off we almost immediately got back into our rhythm and soon created more chances. Lennard twice being denied from the keeper and Slater seeing his lob go just the wrong side of the bar. We were soon to get our fourth and a hattrick goal from Kidman. A corner from the right was headed onto his own bar by the Hawkhurst defender, the ball fell back to Harman on the right side, his cross was flicked on at the near post by Greenfield and neatly finished into the top corner by Kidmam!

Linsday now replaced Fletcher for a deserved appearance. With our dominance showing and the game somewhat drifting into an inevitably, we somewhat complacently lost concentration and conceded a sloppy goal to give Hawkhurst a consolation.

Never the less the game was won 4-1 and with other results going our way we saw our lead at the top extend to 4 points. Without ever getting into top gear we neatly played out the win today and those kinds of performances are needed if we are to content for the title. Man of the match was Jack Harman who was immense in the centre of midfield, pulling stings all game long.

Next week we welcome Bexhill Town to The Rec in the League Cup.