Gale, on loan from Dorking Wanderers, pounced on 81 minutes to the delight of the majority of the Nyewood Lane crowd — and the visitors, down to 10 men, couldn’t respond.
The win once again boosts the mood for Robbie Blake’s men, who climbed off the bottom of the Isthmian premier division on Saturday thanks to a 1-1 draw with Carshalton Athletic.
Now the gaffer wants his charges to replicate their decent form of late — they won on the road at Bowers & Pitsea and only a late capitulation at Lewes cost them a point — as they head to another challenge with a league game at Folkestone Invicta on Saturday.
Bognor deserved to win this cup clash with United but were undoubtedly helped in their task by the dismissal of Tom Howard on 21 minutes after a foul on home striker Dan Gifford was deservedly deemed a red card offence by referee Adrian Harris.
The home side were largely dominant and chalked up an incredible 23 shots on goal during the contest.
Blake was understandably delighted with the victory. He told Peter Hood from Rocks Radio: “When they went down to 10 men it got a little bit easier. But I thought we were the better team with eleven versus eleven and the plus point is that they were almost full strength and we had to change it up a bit. You can’t fault the lads in terms of effort, commitment and work rate. The last four games we have been a different team, really, which is positive. And we are pleased to get a clean sheet too.
“We created so many chances and we have arguably scored from the hardest chance we had. That’s football. All you can keep doing is banging the door down and keep going to try to score goals and we need to keep more clean sheets because for all those chances we end up hanging in there for the last two minutes. It just goes to show for all the dominance in a game. you are never over the line until the whistle blows.
“It’s good for confidence to get the win. We were buoyed by the positive result against Carshalton on Saturday and Hastings are a good team and I felt we thoroughly deserved the win and should have won more handsomely. I genuinely feel there has been a shift and we look a lot better team.”
Looking ahead to Folkestone Invicta on Saturday, Blake added: “They are all tough games and Folkestone won’t be any different. There are no easy games, but they are all games we can win. I think if we can take the attitude and commitment and the work rate from the last four games into Saturday we will cause them problems. But we know about the strengths they have got, and they have got some good players. We have got to be up for the challenge and I think we will be.”
Rocks: Ryan Hall, Spencer Spurway, Hayden Gale, Toby Kingswell, Amadou Jallow, Tyler Edmonson, Preston Woolston (Jasper Mather 65), Matt Burgess (c), Dan Gifford, Charlie Lambert (Lennie Smith 72), Tommy-Lee Higgs.
