Match Reports
10/12/05
Cliftonville 2's 0-2 Men's 3rd XI
The season starts here!
A changed 3rd XI took the long journey east to the wonderful Isle of Thanet (cabbage country) to play bottom of the league Cliftonville in a game they must win to maintain hope of winning the league.
Brighton clearly conscious not to be over confident had a nervy start and quickly brought themselves down to Cliftonville’s standard of play. Brighton were never troubled but seemed to lack the killer instinct of previous matches. The middle of the pitch was well controlled by new boys Tom and Russell and the back four vocally marshalled by Alex Lees on particularly chatty form giving the defence a welcome solid feel.
Davros opened the scoring mid-way through the first half with a wonderful reverse stick strike from a slipped short corner routine, one from the training pitch no doubt.
Brighton maintained the pressure but the final touch just wasn’t there for the unlucky strikers.
The second half continued in a similar vein as Cliftonville proceeded to lose their cool in the face of the ice cool Liam Cotter. The points were assured after Ed ‘Anselmo’ Cox stole in at the top of the ‘D’ and finished with a cool strike past the ‘keeper.
This brings an end to what has been described by Skipper Dan Simpson as a “Topsy Turvy, up and down, rollercoaster” first half of a season so far with Brighton 3’s sitting mid table 4 points off second place but 7 off the top spot. But with this being a very inconsistent league they are by no means out of it.
DB