THE part-time footballers of Hastings United were in hot water with their manager last week, but it was nothing to do with the Pilot Field lads’ performances.
Nor would you expect it to be, with one defeat in their last 12 matches and a place in the FA Cup second round for the first time in the Sussex side’s history.
The Ryman Premier boys – the lowest ranked team left in the competition – were treated to an overnight stay ahead of their clash at Harrogate Town, and their pre-match dip in the outdoor Headlam Hall hot tub played its part in the preparations.
With the 1-1 draw landing them a place in last Sunday’s third round draw, and a potential trip to Championship big guns Middlesbrough should they overcome the Yorkshire side in Thursday’s replay, player-boss Sean Ray is hoping they’ll be able dip their bodies once again in the north-east.
Mentality
Ray, the 31-year-old centre-half, says: “It’s a once in a lifetime chance at this level to take the boys away to a five-star hotel.
“We got up there around half-three on Friday and it was brilliant because it gives you that feeling of what it is like to be a professional football player.
“I took my girlfriend, my two sons and her son up there, and as soon as we’d checked into our rooms, we went down to the pool.
“When we got down there all the boys were already in the outside hot-tub – and boy was it cold when you got out! But it seemed to work. Hopefully we’ll get another chance to go there ahead of the third round.”
Ex-Crystal Palace schoolboy Ray is Mr Hastings. After spells with Rye & Iden United, St Leonards and Eastbourne Borough, he joined his hometown club in 2004 and, bar an 18-month spell at Kent’s Ashford Town, has been an ever-present at the heart of their defence since.
Not only did he take the managerial reins in October 2011, he runs the Arrows’ youth scheme for Under-7s to 16s, and their community programme.
Everywhere he goes at the moment, be it a school, centre or supermarket, people want to talk about the FA Cup and what may lie ahead after fighting back from a goal down – as the Step 3 strugglers already have at higher-level sides Staines and Bishop’s Stortford – to stay in the hat.
“If this was last season, most of the boys would think we’ve lost the game if we go behind,” says Ray. “At the minute, we don’t know when we’re beaten and we’ve instilled that mentality over time. Our league position doesn’t do us justice because I honestly believe we’re a top ten side at least.”
As they get behind on their games due to cup involvement, the danger is that United could get sucked deeper into a relegation battle.
Ray goes on: “You can tell your players not to think about the FA Cup and to concentrate only on the league, but even if they put it to the back of their mind, it’s all the supporters and everyone around the town are talking about, so it’s hard.
“It does become a distraction, but we were probably favourites to be relegated this season. We have one of the bottom three budgets in the league, easily. So if we don’t get relegated and we get to the third round, I’ll take that.”
Jamie Crellin’s second-half equaliser earned them their replay, which has been put back two days to allow the Arrows to host the ESPN cameras for their first-ever live TV game.
Ray knows there is work to be done before the scenes of unbridled joy at the third round draw, as captured by Sky Sports and the BBC in the Pilot Field clubhouse last Sunday, can be worth anything.
“You’re sitting there seeing your name being drawn out in the third round and it’s something that’s probably never going to happen again, so you have to enjoy it,” says Ray.
“Everyone wants a Premier League side, but how many top-flight clubs are actually bigger than Middlesbrough? There’s probably only seven or eight, so Middlesbrough is the next best thing.
Magic
“It probably won’t sink in fully until we’re either knocked out by Harrogate, or we walk out at the Riverside.
“We’ve got another tough game now next Thursday and our pitch is going to suit them. Their pitch was dire, and the ref said before the game that if the cameras weren’t there, he’d have called it off.
“They’ve got a lot of experience in there with a few ex-pros and they’ve got some dangerous players who’ll get it down and play on our surface, so we are going to have to be at our very best.
“But we are in a little bubble at the moment. It’s all a bit surreal. We had journalists down last week and they were asking whether the FA Cup had lost any of its magic. I just said ‘Go and ask any player, official or supporter of a Non-League club and you’ll get 100 per cent the same answer as from me’.
“Maybe in the Premier League it’s lost its magic because of the money on offer in the Champions League.
But at this level, it’s never going to lose it, is it?”
The famous old competition’s a bit like Ray’s redoubtable side in that respect.
The setting may have moved from a hot tub in the north to the freezing Sussex sea, but Hastings battle on, never knowing when they are sunk.
