Match Reports
10/03/07
City of Portsmouth 0-8 Men's 1st XI
Brighton have avoided a tense finish to the season with a very important 3 points against already relegated Portsmouth. With Eastcote losing away to Staines, Brighton are now safe and can not be caught by either of the relegation zone teams.
The game started with brighton winning the toss and deciding to take control. With Simon Turner away on 'business' Mark Hardy and Justin Harris were charged with controling the midfield and did so with confidence. After 10 minutes of good possession the Portsmouth defence failed to clear their lines and a hard hit cross by Craig Carolan from the base line across goal was met by Dan Hore's perfectly timed drive, albeit from less than a metre. Craig went from provider to goal scorer to add a second before half time with a nice quick turn and hit into the bottom right corner.
2-0 at half time and Brighton heads were high and feeling in control of the game, but a focused team talk brought back the reality that this was still a must win game and the foot was not to be removed from the pedal.
Portsmouth were fielding a very young side but thier enthusiasm never wavered and although Craig Carolan added 2 more shortly after the break, they continued to push forward. Sam Rose added a fifth from a Gareth Lendrum short corner which rebounded off the right post and into Rose's path. There were a few scary moments when the youngsters of Portsmouth were pressing very high and forcing a few errors from the Brighton defence. Unfortunatly their zest for some sort of consilation can at a high price when Luke Williams broke down a Portsmouth attack and released a quick pass to Simon Coles on the halfway line. Coles eliminated his marker and sent a perfectly weighted ball down the line to Sam Rose who beat his man and had only the keeper to beat when he unselfishly squared the ball to an unmarked Dan Hore to but the ball into the open net.
Hore then completed his hatrick after conecting with Luke Williams' wayward reverse stick shot after a very good double save from the Portsmouth goalie.The game was then finished off when an arial from Mark Hardy found its way into the D between a defender and the goalie. Sam Rose was quick to pounce in the confusion to flick the ball over the oncoming keeper and slide in his second of the game.
A very good performance all round and now looking forward to an away game against Purley with the pressure of relegation off our shoulders.
Man of the Match - Sam Rose
Thanks for Coming - Sam Forster