Hawks win on a day of NLS surprise results
Hawks’ much-needed victory against Chelmsford came on a day of big shocks elsewhere in the National League South.
While they were winning 3-1, four of the top six suffered defeats.
Leaders Dartford lost 3-1 at an Eastbourne Borough side who are now up to fourth.
Teenage striker Charley Kendall put Borough ahead after 10 minutes, before Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong levelled on the hour mark.
Chris Whelpdale restored the hosts’ lead before Joel Rollinson’s first goal of the season sealed Dartford’s third loss in 12 matches.
Dorking were unable to take advantage, suffering a shock 2-1 home loss against a Bath City side who had started the game rock bottom.
Hungerford Town - in sixth place - were caned 3-0 at home by a Dulwich Hamlet side winning for only the second time in nine league matches.
The big winners of the day were St Albans City, who are now just two points behind Dartford - with three games in hand - after a 2-0 win at fifth-placed Hampton & Richmond.
St Albans remain the division’s only unbeaten team after recording their seventh success in nine games.
That’s compared to the 2019/20 season, when they only won nine out of 35 games and were fourth bottom when the campaign was abruptly ended due to the pandemic.
Slough - who visit Westleigh Park on Wednesday - are surprisingly in the bottom five after finishing in the play-offs last season.
The Rebels came from 0-2 down to earn a point at Chippenham at the weekend, Lee Togwell grabbing a 90th minute leveller.
Hawks are now 12 points adrift of Dartford, but have five games in hand.
They are 10 adrift of secondplaced Dorking, with four matches in hand.
But Hawks are also 10 points behind St Albans, and only have two games in hand on them.
Hawks boss Paul Doswell is not remotely concerned at the moment.
‘Seriously, I won’t look at the table until February or March.
‘I’ve been a manager long enough to know it’s a marathon and not a sprint.
‘I won the league at Sutton one year after we were 17th at one point.
‘If we get to March and we’re challenging, I know we’d be good enough to go on a run of six or seven wins in a row.
‘If we beat Slough on Wednesday, we’ll have 16 points from eight games - and if you can average two points a game you’ll be right up there at the end of the season.’
starting to trickle back. Whether it’s 2,000 at Fratton Park or the Etihad, or 803 at Westleigh Park, a trickle is better than nothing.
Doswell was convinced the presence of supporters helped his players turn in a ‘proper performance’ to beat Chelmsford 3-1 with a hattrick from striker Tommy
Wright.
‘There was a sharpness there and I think that was due to having supporters back,’ he explained.
‘It’s been a horrible nine months, it’s been tough to keep going at times.
‘I haven’t enjoyed the games at all, it’s just been sterile without them.
‘You can’t under-estimate how the players feel without crowds - there is a lack of intensity at times.’
Doswell is now hopeful more supporters will be persuaded to return on Wednesday for the NL South home game with Slough.
‘It’s a safe environment here,’ he stated. ‘We’ve missed the fans - home and away - and it would be great to see more of them come back.’
No doubt some former Hawks regulars don’t yet consider the conditions right for their return – the weekend crowd was around 600 down on last season’s average.
Perhaps some will only come back when the Covid-19 infection rates have fallen still further, or if and when Hampshire is placed under tier 1 restrictions.
Time, as always, will tell whether the pandemic has hit attendances at all levels of the beautiful game. That might take weeks, months, possibly a lot longer than another 273 days.
One day we’ll find out, but for now we should rejoice in the fact that on a cold, wet, filthy winter’s afternoon at Westleigh Park, 803 people cared enough – and there were thousands of like-minded souls nationwide who did the same - to start their own return to normality.
See pages 52&53
It’s been a horrible nine months, it’s been tough to keep going at times Hawks boss Paul Doswell