Vs. Hastings Rangers II (A)
Starting XI	Substitutes:
Grant Lewis
Owen Davies
Alan Cowley
Gary Williams	(87 Gary Wenham)
Paul Ford	(65 Darrell Hartley)
Dave Mills
Ollie Jeffs
Pete Cooper
Andy Mills (c)
Gary Walsh
Bryan Leggett	(65 Aaron Dreeling)
Referee: B Wingrove
Goals: Walsh (18,40), Davies (25).
HT Score: 3-1
FT Score: 3-1

The final game of an encouraging season pitted Battle against a Hastings side that still clung on to some outside promotion hopes. A windswept Bulverhythe was the venue and another excellent Battle performance against tough opposition only confirmed how high the hopes are for next season now that several young players are coming to the fore and the team as a whole has definitely found a resilience that was lacking earlier in the season.

It was Hastings who imposed themselves quicker and with the wind gusting from over their shoulders they scored the first goal as Owen Davies and keeper Grant Lewis got a little too close and the striker somehow nipped in to prod the ball home. However, an admirable Battle quality of late has been their ability to brush off such an occurrence and get themselves back into the game. Suddenly the urgency was there and Battle didn’t look back, scrapping and battling for every ball and playing some good football to boot, even with the strong wind making that difficult at times. An equaliser came shortly after falling behind, Gary Walsh chesting a long ball down into the path of Pete Cooper and sprinting on to the return pass to shoot across the helpless keeper into the bottom right corner of the net.

Several minutes later a nasty tackle left Walsh prone, and for a while it looked like he might not get up. Eventually he rose to his feet and while the challenge went unpunished in the referee’s book, it didn’t go unpunished by Battle as Owen Davies cracked the resulting 35-yard free kick over the bewildered Hastings keeper and under the bar, much to the satisfaction of his jubilant teammates. The set pieces of Owen Davies and Alan Cowley have been a particular strength to the team this season, producing a large number of Battle’s goals, and it was a cleverly flighted free kick from Cowley that led to Battle’s third when Gary Walsh crept in at the back post to stab home.

As half-time came Battle knew that one more would sink the Rangers side but playing with the wind didn’t prove as easy as hoped and Battle couldn’t add to their tally. The Battle defence however stood firm in the face of some spells of Hastings pressure and where they did get through they found keeper Lewis in excellent form. Battle themselves saw some good chances go amiss, Walsh in particular drawing a great save to be denied a hat-trick and Cooper missing a one-on-one situation that would have drawn him level with Walsh and Leggett as top goalscorers. With the game safe Battle could enjoy the last-day atmosphere at Bulverhythe and celebrate their third win in a row which will leave them fifth in Division 3 if awarded the 3 points from the Wittersham game. – A great performance and a fitting end to an excellent and enjoyable season. Bring on September!!