Molesey 5-4 Hastings

The Moles trailed on three separate occasions and looked dead and buried midway through the second half with the visitors 3-1 up and looking to put the game to bed.

Liam Allen made a crucial double save at that point and five minutes later they were level thanks to two goals in sixty seconds.

It was harsh on the visitors, as there doesn’t deserve to be losers on nights like this, however other than that 20 minute period after half-time it was a contest the Moles just about shaded.

The opening twenty minutes gave little indication of the goal fest that was to come. Charlie Samuels and Marcel Henry-Francis failed to hit the target when one on one with ex Chelsea keeper Lenny Pidgeley as the hosts started brighter.

It was against the run of play slightly that the visitors took the lead midway through the half. Pidgeley’s free kick from halfway was headed across goal by Jack Harris, and Mitchell Dickenson’s volley into the ground looped over Allen and just beyond Ashley Lodge on the line.

Molesey were soon level when Tom Windsor got on the end of Lodge’s through ball and dinked a fine effort over Pidgeley into the top corner.

Parity lasted just two minutes, and there was a hint of offside as Harris got on the end of another long ball. However, his control was instant and he smashed an effort beyond Allen from 20 yards.

Hastings started the second period much brighter and within five minutes opened up a two goal cushion.

There was an element of luck, with both Molesey centre halves Ryan David and Dre Grobler slipping when trying to cut out a through ball.

Harris got on the end of it and was scythed down by Allen. Although Allen protested unsuccessfully that the offence had occurred outside the box, luck was on Molesey’s side this time as Allen was somewhat generously only shown a yellow card. Ex Dover striker Frannie Collin converted the spot kick.

At this point Hastings looked set to ride off into the sunset with the three points. Allen made his vital double save, denying Matt Bodkin with his feet and Kieran Mason-Hughes with his hands, and that gave the Moles the springboard to launch a comeback.

There seemed little danger to Pidgeley when Ross Chalke met Tom Windsor’s cross with a looping header from twelve yards, however, he seemed to get his feet in a mess and the ball snuck under the crossbar.

It got even better very soon after. A superb move involving Chalke, Joe Nwoko, Lodge, Cruyff turns and backheels resulted in Nwoko sweeping the ball beyond Pidgeley to draw the Moles level. It was almost, almost like watching Barcelona.

It was turning into end to end stuff, and it was the visitors that dealt the next blow. Grobler wrongly gambled on being able to cut out a through ball, which took both he and Chalke out the game.

Harris galloped away down the left, and with Hastings players queuing up at the far post it was left to Bodkin to finish smartly from 12 yards.

Back the Moles came, and when Pidgeley made a mess of dealing with Craig Lewington’s free kick, Grobler more than made up for his earlier error by volleying home the loose ball from an unfavourable angle.

Both sides had great chances to go in front in the final ten minutes. Pidgeley pulled off a double save of his own to just about keep out Samuels’ free kick and Charles’ follow up that hit the inside of the post and crept along the goalline before being smothered.

Hastings came even closer in a goalmouth scramble where they were denied once by their own player, and twice by amazing goalline clearances by Chalke and Grobler.

It was deep into stoppage time when the sting in the tail arrived. Charles had been brought on at 3-1 and injected some energy and urgency into the Moles’ play.

He scored his first Ryman League goal for the club when he picked up Nwoko’s pullback with an open goal in front of him and couldn’t miss. He didn’t. Quite how neither Pidgeley or Ollie Rowe failed to cut out the pullback remains a mystery, but the home side didn’t care as it turned out to be pretty much the last kick of the game.

It was a morale-boosting win. And a record that just ten days previously showed winless in three months now reads as a much healthier one defeat in eight as the Moles look to continue to put ground between themselves and the relegation zone.