Match Reports
03/12/05
Eastbourne Eaglets 2-3 Men's 6th XI
Scorers: Myles Ford (2), Dicky Barnes
The Mighty 6's bounced back from 2 defeats on the road with a stirring second half comeback, as Myles scored his first goals for Brighton after 5 seasons with the club.
Skipper Will returned to a Brighton line up missing Ed and Hendo. Birdy guessing in goal after Xav the Chav failed to recover from another nights binge drinking.
The match started with Brighton dominating territory and posession, Dicky and Dipak anchoring midfield and Sam Parkin making a number of dangerous runs from right back, supported by CJ and Myles. After a series of short corners, Brighton's best chance came when Howie drove home just as the umpire had blown for a another shortie.
Regular readers of this column recognise a familar scenario with this seasons 6's, and this game was no different. After 20 minutes, Eastbourne finally had a proper attack, and scored when a free hit outside the D was touched past Birdy. 5 minutes later, Brighton's failure to clear again resulted in the ball rolling under Birdy's foot to put Eastbourne 0-2 up at half time.
The second half opened with Brighton keen to put the record straight, putting almost constant pressure on the Eastbourne back four. The home side fashioned a series of good chances through Howie, Dicky, Myles and Sam Parkin. Ollie and Adrian both extremely unlucky not to score.
The Brighton duck was finally broke 10 minutes into the half. Good work from Adrian on the left, found Howie just inside D. He slipped the ball to Myles who placed the ball just inside the bottom right hand corner of the goal from the top of the D.
Back in the game, Brighton continued to press and equalised when Dicky's through ball from just inside the D was missed by 3 Eastbourne defenders, Ollie and the Goalkeeper and rolled into the goal. The comeback was then completed when Myles picked up Dicky's square pass and drove at 2 Eastbourne defenders, cut through to the by line and his narrow angled shot bounced off the keepers kickers and into the net.
With Brighton 3-2 up, Eastbourne worked hard to get back in the game, taking up more of the possession when Martin was yellowed for retaliation. Despite this, Will's use of magnets keep the heavily pierced Eastbourne forward tightly marked, and they continued to fashion out the best opportunities. The game finished with the 6's unlucky not to have made the result more comfortable.
Ollie's Afro Watch - Despite the opposition's entering a Mohican into the 'worst haircut on the pitch' competition. The forces of nature allowed the 'Fro to be contorted into a series of hidious shapes as the wind and rain worked their sinister spells.