Town hold on for draw

GUERNSEY 0 HYTHE 0

Will Godmon saved a penalty as depleted Hythe produced an excellent defensive performance to subdue Guernsey in Isthmian South East at Footes Lane on Saturday.

Hythe, beaten 4-1 in each of their previous two games, were without a host of players including injured trio Charlie Webster, Aaron Simpson and Danny Divine, the suspended Alex Flisher and the unavailable Ollie Rowe.

They then lost striker Frannie Collin to a first-half injury giving boss Steve Watt the chance to blood 16-year-old substitute Jacob Brown.

Both he and fellow youngster Josh Eka acquitted themselves well and Hythe almost stole an unlikely win at the death when Jamie Coyle headed over.

Alex Brown had an early sighter for Town firing over from just outside the area, while Guernsey’s first chance came on 12 minutes when Charlton Gauvain pulled a free-kick wide of the target. There were appeals for a penalty four minutes later when Guernsey’s Keanu

Marsh went down in the Hythe area but the referee waved them away.

Collin limped off after 25 minutes, suggesting it was again not going to be Hythe’s day, a concern reinforced when Eli Benoit brought down Gauvain to concede a penalty. However Gauvain’s poorly taken penalty failed to test Hythe keeper Godmon who saved comfortably to his right. Guernsey had one last chance before the break, Alex Scott shooting into the side netting. Hythe also had opportunities, Alex Brown bringing a comfortable save out of home keeper Callum Stanton, who also denied Hythe man-of-thematch Ross Ibbertson.

The Cannons might have broken the deadlock on 70 minutes when Kaka Dembele played in Coyle but his shot across the face of goal was just out of the reach of the advancing Stephen Okoh. Guernsey, unbeaten at home, now stepped up the pressure with Mahon’s shot deflected wide and Harry Tobin heading over but with just a minute remaining, Coyle might have won it, heading over from a Rogers corner.

There was still time for Hythe assistant boss Nathan Elder – on as a late sub – to glance a header just wide and, in the dying seconds, Godmon palmed away Gauvain’s cross to earn Hythe a fully deserved point.

Hythe: Godmon, Ibbertson, Dembele, Rogers, Coyle, Benoit, Okoh, Alex Brown (Eka 72 mins), Walmsley, Collin (Jacob Brown 25 mins), Trespaderne (Elder 85 mins). Unused subs: Harding, Nicholls.

Attendance: 811.