United's biggest crowd thus far sadly witnessed a pretty mundane encounter at Church Road this afternoon as neither side posed a major threat throughout the whole 90 minutes.

Garry Haylock made just one change from the side beaten at Westleigh Park on Saturday, that being the inclusion of Gilbert Nuako at left-back in place of Matthew Hislop. Also added to the bench was striker Josh Scott who has been out injured since the pre-season game with Exeter City at the start of August.

The game took some time to get going at Church Road this afternoon with Hampton setting out their stall from the off with a five man midfield and just Ian Hodges up top inviting United to try to break down the resistance, something that did not look close to happening until the final few minutes.

Fifteen minutes had passed when a couple of half chance came United's way, firstly everyone left a Steven Gregory free-kick that bounced narrowly wide and Simon Martin got in front of his marker from a Liam Collins cross but fired over. Skipper Nevin Saroya then stepped into the way of an Elliott Godfrey long range effort before Martin was set up for a shot from the edge by Will Hendry but this was easily dealt with by keeper Matt Lovett.

The half hour mark saw United create the only decent opening of the half but sadly Gregory's cross fell to Liam Collins' weaker left foot and he skied his effort.

A half time change was forced on United when illness prevented Gregory from reappearing and he was replaced by James Mulley (pictured left) in the centre of midfield. The Beavers almost caused panic for United when Stuart Lake picked off a loose pass and ran at the centre of the defence only for Delroy Preddie to come sliding from goal to gather at his feet. Shortly after Mulley had a dig from 30 yards but Lovett had time to pick it up at his leisure.

The alarm bells first rang for United on 66 minutes when a quick breakout saw 4 Beavers up against 2 retreating United defenders, Stuart Lake moving into the box and shooting from an angle, Preddie did well to parry the shot and Saroya tidied up. A further twelve minutes had elapsed when United's best chance of the game arrived at the feet of substitute Kieran Knight. Hendry and Mulley had advanced the ball forwards before the latter moved it left to Knight whose first time shot with his weaker left foot missed the far corner by inches with Lovett beaten.

With time running out Mulley was causing problems for the Beavers defence, a low cross to Steve Perkins just being cut out in time and seconds later Mulley himself moved into the area and was only denied a shot by a three man gang tackle.

Sadly a fairly boring game ended on a sour note as our own Staforde Palmer and Hampton's Kelvin McIntosh were both shown straight red cards for an off the ball incident with just a minute remaining.


Report by Kevin Watts.



Photos by Ray Peploe.