Eastbourne Dynamos returned to league action this week away to Hastings Rangers. Dynamos were missing several players, and only managed to name 11 players in their squad.

In the worst conditions so far of the season, there was a strong wind and patches of rain, made sure this game was going to be scrappy.

The first half saw Dynamos chose to defend against the wind, which caused Eastbourne to have to stay deep in their own half. Goal kicks would go up, and then back again, as the visitors were reduced to only a couple of attempts to get into the Hastings area.

The Eastbourne defence played brilliantly in the first half, with Martin Bell also making some good saves to keep Hastings out.

Hastings were reduced to shots from distance, and at half time the scores were 0-0.

The second half saw Dynamos play with the wind, but never really use it to their advantage. Hastings pushed higher up the pitch that Eastbourne had done, and made sure they kept the ball on the deck as much as possible.

The rain decided to join the difficult wind to make life hard for both sets of players.

Rangers managed to break the deadlock midway through the half, when most players had stopped because of an injury to an Eastbourne player. Hasting continued to attack and Eastbourne failed to clear their lines before the Hastings player looped the ball over Martin Bell, who was on the floor from an initial save.

Time looked like it was going to run out for Eastbourne as they lacked any cutting edge upfront, as they continued with the ball over the top tactic, which was swept up by the keeper or ran out of play.

Dynamos a two chances right near the death, one was a freekick by Stephen Fletcher which was fumbled by the keeper, and then two corners, the first was deflected wide for the second corner, which with time running out, Dean Pugh ran across to take. His mis-kicked corner ran across the goal line, before bobbling past the defender and into the net at the near post.

Dynamos had managed to snatch a draw, which in all fairness was probably a fair result. This was a day, with the bad weather and severe lack of players, where coming out the other end with a point was a good result. The Eastbourne squad numbers is already being tested to the full.