Wounded United show old skill and spirit

UNITED's casualty list continued to worsen with Aaron Hawkins, Alex Page and Chris Makin joining Dickie Anderson, Danny Collins, Conrad Sparkes and Dan Antink on the unavailable list.

Despite these missing players United fielded a strong side, albeit slightly unbalanced with several players having to play in unaccustomed positions.

Taking this into account and last week's poor home performance United put in an excellent first half display. Darren Payne marshalled the defence, Benjie Symes and Ashley Weddle provided width and the duo of Dave Williams and East India Tandoori man of the match Daniel Rudgley made life difficult for the Forest defence.

United manager Len Watkins was satisfied with what took place under the extenuating circumstances. He said: "They did very well. I think there was more spirit. We played our usual football in the first half and having Dave Williams back in the side made all the difference. His partnership with Dan Rudgley is excellent. We were much, much better than them in the first half and if we continued playing at that same tempo they didn't have a chance."

From the start United repeatedly got behind the Forest full backs with Weddle, Symes, Williams and Rudgley all latching onto early passes from the midfield. The Forest defence worked hard but it was only a matter of time before the visitors' efforts were rewarded. Rudgley fastened onto a long clearance from Heritage, turned his defender and put in a perfect cross for striking partner Williams who powered his header home from 10 yards.

Forest had a header from a corner cleared off the line by Matt Cornelius and then equalised from a long, hopeful ball as the United defence stood still waiting for the referee's whistle.

Level at half-time and with three points on the cards, United failed to dominate the second half. The strikers were all too often left redundant as Bexhill appeared to have settled for an away point. Forest took advantage and had the better of the 45 minutes and only resolute defending by Tim Funnell, Cornelius and Payne denied Forest an undeserved victory.

With players returning for selection, a couple of new signings on the cards and increased competition for places, United manager Len Watkins is looking forward to the forthcoming weeks.

United: Heritage, Cornelius, Symes, Payne, Funnell, Weddle, D. Bigg, T. Bigg, Matthews, Rudgley, Williams. Subs not used: Rise, Martin, Watkins.