TT MATCH VERDICT

Matty Hayward – @MattyHayward96

Matty reports back

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HEMEL HEMPSTEAD TOWN 2-1 TORQUAY UNITED – NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH – 30.08.25

SUMMARY

Hemel Hempstead away. I can’t be the only one who thought those words had been consigned, not to the dustbin of history, but to the walls of fame. The day Cody got his hat-trick. The day we nearly made it. But no, we had to go back, didn’t we?

And back we came, with a bump.

It started ok. The game started evenly, with Torquay enjoying quite a lot of the ball but doing little with it. The first save of the game was Hamon’s, who stopped a low shot with his feet after Sam Dreyer was caught in possession. 

Then Hemel got a corner. They played it short – a move that, from 100 yards away, was farcically predictable, like an encore at a gig – and when the cross came in it was on the money. Amongst a crowd of players, it was Hemel’s Millar Matthews-Lewis who had manoeuvred himself free of his marker and nodded home. Why the opposition centre forward had that much space in the box is a conversation for the tactical debrief on Monday.

Hamon had a couple more good saves to make before the break, and the Yellows went into the hutch without having troubled the home ‘keeper.

Two subs: Akyeampong and Phillips replaced Thomas and Jay. 

With this, the game became more open. Torquay had, in one move, three or four excellent chances. A cross from Jordan Young’s right boot – pretty much the only time United got the ball to him in space – led to chances from Cody Cooke, Louis Dennis and Matt Worthington. They were all either scuffed or blocked, before Dan Hayfield leathered the hardest chance of the lot against the crossbar.

It’d be a mis-use of the metaphor to say that Torquay were knocking on the door after that, but the goal did come. A deep free kick was frittered around the box until Ed Palmer cushioned a finish home. He thought he was offside. So did I. But the referee’s assistant didn’t, and we have to take their word for it. It was so exciting I broke my watch strap.

I fancied us as at this stage, and didn’t stop fancying us when Hemel had their own go at rattling the crossbar. At one each, shooting down hill with the wind behind us, it looked like we had the better side of the equation, but in the end it was the Tudors who kept their heads to convert one point into three.

Hamon was forced into more saves, and had to rely on his crossbar to keep the home side out. A break down the left made United really open. Jay Foulston was completely exposed against two men – it’s for the analysts to decide whether it’s Josh Phillips’ or Louis Dennis’ or someone else’s fault for this – and after a clever ball into the box, a low cross was turned home by Europe’s best centre forward whose name is in the Surname FirstNames-FirstName format, Millar Matthews-Lewis. It’s good to have a niche. Plough that furrow, Millar. Enjoy it.

Huffs, puffs, balls into the mixer, the usual. But Torquay made very few chances when they needed to, and Hemel closed the game out for what was, on balance, a deserved victory.

PLAYER RATINGS

1. HAMON – 7: I’ll preface all of the defensive displays with this: I was at the other end of the ground for all of their action. But I think Hamon did alright! Made two or three important saves and wasn’t noticeably to blame for the goals.

3. FOULSTON – 5: Little good to say. Exposed for the winner, which wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t impress either.

26. THOMAS – 4: Getting hooked at half time doesn’t look good, and he might’ve been the marker that MML evaded in the first half. Not sure why our shortest defender was given that role, mind.

16. PALMER – 7: Eddy P is having a moment. I think the gaffer was slightly disappointed at the presser in the week: the suggestion – I’m sure unintentional – was that Palmer is a part-time carthorse joker. I thought he did well again. His finish was one of a man who thought he was offside, but of course he can claim that was just his now trademark composure in the box.

5. DREYER – 4: I think he’d be the first to admit it was a bit of a stinker. Last season he passed the ball beautifully and dominated forwards. He didn’t do that yesterday, I’m afraid, losing possession in dangerous positions at least twice. 

18. WORTHINGTON – 5: I’m basically happy to accept the opinion of people who have seen him more, who say he’s a cross between Andrea Pirlo and Michael Ballack. I sincerely take their word for it. But yesterday he was bang average.

20. HAYFIELD – 5: He’s a runner, and he ran. Hitting the bar was fun.

27. JAY – 5: Barely affected the game and was withdrawn at the break. 

7. DENNIS- 5: As with Worthington, I believe others who have seen him more who tell me he’s good. There were very very brief moments of quality. But he never got near changing the game, and his chance at 1-0 was the easiest of the lot.

8. YOUNG – 6: We can’t expect him to win us the game every week. He barely got the ball, and when he did he was surrounded by five of Hertfordshire’s biggest Heifers.

9. COOKE – 5: In April, he took Hemel’s back four to the cleaners and came away with change and a set of sparkling undies. Yesterday he didn’t have a huge impact at all.

SUBS

12. PHILLIPS – 6: Moments of genuine quality, moments of genuine National League South behaviour. 

2. AKYEAMPONG – 6: His strength is an asset. His back passes were flawless.

4. DYER – 6: No issues in a desperate cause. An absolute shoo-in to start on Tuesday if he’s as fit as Wotton says.

15. CROSBIE – 5: I’d absolutely love him to be good. You sense that, if he were to have one chance to stamp his authority, that was it. He wasn’t great.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH – ED PALMER

I don’t know, man. I thought Palmer looked competent, and he scored. Among limited competition, that’ll do.

TACTICS

4-2-3-1 again. Dan Hayfield – a man who surely feared for his game-time this summer, as midfielders flooded in through the doors – replaced the injured Sundire in midfield. Jay on the left, for Phillips.

Worthington went off with 15 to go. Dead leg, says Wotton. I hope that’s all it is.

OPPOSITION

I mean, they’re Hemel Hempstead. They created slightly more than us and scored one more. The feller who got battered by Cody in April was at least good enough this time.

THE OFFICIALS

Both our first and their second looked offside from behind the goal, but the highlights seem to suggest that they were both alright. 

Otherwise an uneventful game for them.

CONCLUSION

Italians, with their four World Cups under their belts, say that “football in August is a lie.” It’s too soon, they say, to draw conclusions or make predictions about the season. 

Paul Wotton, a man who knows our sport much better than me, said this week that he wouldn’t look at the table until after sixteen games. Before that, we deduce, it’s basically meaningless.

By that logic, yesterday’s result is a fly in the ointment. Nothing to worry about. Keep calm and carry on.

Maybe that’s right. I hope so. But it really must be stated that we were rubbish, and our away record is beginning to become less of an anomaly and more of a genuine concern. 

Win Tuesday and it’s forgotten. Lose and it doesn’t look great.

COYY – Matty

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