Bognor are 11 points from safety and face second-in-the-table Dover Athletic on Saturday at Nyewood Lane in a game that the visitors are desperate to win to reclaim top spot from Billericay Town.
That’s not to say there weren’t positives to take from this battling performance against the in-form Tags — but the unavoidable truth is that injury-hit Bognor need a couple of miracles to avoid the dreaded drop.
The Nye Camp gaffers recognise the reality of the situation and although the burning desire is to maintain the club’s top-flight status, their frank assessment of the encounter notably avoided any hyperbole about the chances of them surviving.
Howell pulled no punches when he summed up his feelings on the ability of his charges to rally and make a fist of pulling away from the danger zone — while recognising that for spells there was lots to like. He said: “Their first goal changed the game and when you are bottom of the league with young lads it did knock us because we were excellent at times and some of the stuff we did was really good — but we did really well yet conceded four goals and you can’t win games of football like that. We want to bring in players slowly but surely but it is hard because we are looking at the longer term. Collectively we are not fit for purpose to compete in this division because we concede too many goals.”
Birmingham says he was left frustrated at his side constantly shooting themselves in the foot to lose games through their inadequacies despite getting so much right in certain phases of play. He said: “It is hard to take because I thought in the first half we were outstanding but three of their four goals we have had comfortable possession and through our inexperience and naivety we are picking the ball out of the back of the net again.
“We have come away from home, played well and every mistake we are making at the moment we are getting punished. I was annoyed Saturday against Cray Valley with the lack of effort and the way we played second half but today I feel worse because I actually thought we were the better team.
“The players are taking bits of information on board and that’s a massive steps in the right direction. I thought mentally our preparation today was absolutely fantastic so there are positives to take from that. They are small steps in the right direction. But football is about results. I’m gutted. This is the worst I have felt since me and Jamie took over at Bognor. We score two goals away from home and we still can’t get anything. They gave us everything and sometimes you have to look and ask, ‘are we good enough at the moment’?
The visitors got off to a good start with controlled possession and displayed a real zip about their play. And they got their reward on 16 minutes when Jasper Mather’s fierce drive was handled in the area by Nathan Smith. Tommy-Lee Higgs scored the rebound after his penalty was parried by Jack Giddens.
Misha Djemaili levelled from the spot after half an hour and the goal seemed to serve a double purpose; it reinvigorated the hosts and knocked the confidence of the visitors, who had enjoyed a level of dominance in the early exchanges.
United started with renewed vigour after the break and Matthew Wooldridge put them in to a 2-1 lead on 58 minutes before Luke May-Parrott made it 3-1 on 78 minutes.
Higgs provided a glimmer of hope that Bognor could scrap their way to parity following a superbly taken goal on 80 minutes to make it 3-2. But those hopes were dashed just 45 seconds later when Wooldridge grabbed his second to restore Hashtag’s two-goal advantage.
1 Ryan Hall, 2 Calvin Davies, 3 Dion Jarvis, 4 Doug Tuck, 5 Spencer Spurway, 6 Chad Field, 7 Preston Woolston, 8 Matt Burgess, 9 Dan Gifford, 10 Tommy-Lee Higgs, 11 Jasper Mather. Subs: 12 Ollie Starkey, Chad Field (85′), 14 Lewis Beale, Preston Woolston (54′), 15 Rio Long, Dan Gifford (89′), 16 Harvey Whyte.
