Match Reports
11/10/08
Littlehampton 1s 3-5 Men's 5th XI
There were many reasons to fear the trip to Littlehampton, firstly the 2 hour crawl to get there with the Arundel road works and last years 6-0 drubbing.
The 5s were forced into wholesale changes, out went Williams, Swampy, Corrick and Cobley, to be replaced by Chris Upjohn, James Taylor, Tim Pearson, and Hendo. Amazingly Scotty was the first to the meet.
The game started franticly with 7 goals inside 20 minutes. Within 5 minutes Littlehampton had taken the lead as a new look defence took time to find there feet. A short corner was given away, Littlehampton used the Hedges manoeuvre made famous by Benson to open their account . Within 2 minutes Ben T made amends for last weeks misses poking the ball across the line after good work from Josh down the right.
Littlehampton then made it 2-1, the Brighton team were caught far too high up the pitch and were duly punished. Wise words from Matt followed emphasising the need for tighter marking and staying disciplined. Within 2 minutes Brighton were level as Tim and Rob C linked well, Tim’s shot fell to Scotty who knocked the rebound in.
The next 10 minutes saw Brighton score 3, predominately attacking down the right through Josh. Firstly Josh won a short corner, a hash was made of the short corner however the ball broke to Ben T who found the net. From the restart, a pass from Hendo found Josh who used his pace to chink past 2 defenders before scoring a good goal.
There was then a wave of Littlehampton attacks with Upjohn making 2 goal line clearances and Ramzy making 1.
Good interplay by Josh and Hendo in a flowing move brought in Rob and Tim, Tim was brought down for a short corner. Josh struck the shot and the rebound fell to James Taylor who slotted the ball home. 5-2 up at halftime.
Second half was a different story as Littlehampton applied a lot of pressure and Brighton were limited to breakaways. The defence held out well being marshalled by Matt Sale (watch out Swampy he wants that sweeping role!). Littlehampton did win a short corner and the resultant drag flick from cleared off the line by Ramzy with the aid of his chest. The Littlehampton Captain stepped up to take the flick proudly stating he hadn’t missed one in two years, and unfortunately for Brighton he kept up his record. The following short corners lead to squeaky bum time for Ramzy as Littlehampton continued to drag flick, luckily for Brighton & Ramzy they all went wide of the post.
Matt Sale continued to marshal the defence, much to Tim’s disapproval. Playing left back he was ordered to mark - whatever next! Final score 5-3 to Brighton.