‘We owe them one’ – Hawks bidding for quick National League South revenge against Taunton Town

Paul Doswell’s side lost their unbeaten away league record when they suffered a 2-0 loss at Taunton at the end of last month.

On a dismal evening in Somerset, the visitors ended with nine men after centre half Joash Nembhard and striker Danny Wright were sent off.

Both players will serve their second match of a three-game suspension when Taunton visit Westleigh Park this weekend.

‘We owe them one,’ Doswell told The News. ‘We got beat up up there, which is unlike us.

‘They were better than us, we were out-fought and out-thought, they deserved to win.

‘The lads are keen to exact a bit of revenge.

‘We’re in a good place. We recovered from that (loss at Taunton) with a good performance at Ebbsfleet, that could have gone either way (Hawks lost 2-0).

‘Last week it was as good a home performance over the 90 minutes as we’ve had.’

After a goalless opening hour, Hawks eventually beat Chelmsford 3-0 at Westleigh with goals from Charlie Ruff, Mo Faal and sub Sam Matthews.

It was a game which brought a promising debut for striker Callum Kealy, signed from league rivals Worthing in the wake of Jason Prior’s sudden return to Dorking Wanderers.

Having left Dorking last summer, Wanderers came back in for the player in a bid to boost their National League relegation fight.

‘It was a phone call out of the blue from (Dorking boss) Marc White to Stuart (Munro, Hawks CEO),’ recalled Doswell. ‘They negotiated from there.

‘They are desperate to stay up and hopefully Jason can help them.

‘Callum was somebody we were looking at maybe for next season. He’s as good a No 9 as we’ve seen in this league all season.

‘Worthing play a technical, short passing game which I’m not sure suits him - Callum’s an aggressive runner who loves to work the channels.

‘He did 12km last weekend which is an unbelievable stat, that’s Premier League or Championship level.

‘And he’s a good age, he’s 24 - Jason was 34.

‘We’ve lost Billy (Clifford) and Jason so we had to bring in Tyrell (Rodney-Miller) and Callum and I don’t think it’s weakened us.

‘It’s given us more legs and enthusiasm, and I don’t mean that in the wrong way.

‘Tyrell is a different player to Billy, but with him, Ethan (Burnett) and Jake McCarthy in central midfield we’ve got good legs.’

Doswell reported that striker Tommy Wright is progressing well in his loan spell at Southern League Division 1 South title challengers AFC Totton.

Wright, though, is unlikely to be recalled to boost Hawks’ own promotion bid until around mid-March at the earliest.

Likewise, centre half Sam Magri is doing well on loan at Isthmian Leaguers Bognor Regis.

Realistically, second place and home advantage in the play-offs is the best Hawks can manage.

Ebbsfleet’s midweek draw with Chippenham extended their lead over Doswell and co to 14 points, albeit having played two games more.

In turn, Hawks trail Dartford by five points but also have two games in hand.

Defender Ben Shroll, who missed the win against Chelmsford with a knee injury, is available again for Taunton’s visit.