Ben Hoggan reports: "Two teams relegated last season, two teams standing on 14 points this season and two teams who had played out three Old Cranleighan wins in their previous three meetings: Brighton travelled north on Saturday seeking to flip the momentum. With a clean sheet, three goals and three points added to their tally, they left having stamped a mark of their progress firmly onto the OC's turf.

Unlike their previous fixture at a relatively unknown West Herts, Brighton have been in the same league as Cranleighans for the past five seasons. Throughout those years, both sides have tended to position in close proximity to one another and points have often been shared between them.

Saturday’s game began with a similar closeness. Brighton broke through on goal in the first play of the game but failed to convert on a ball across an open goal, before Cranleighans began to mount their own attacks. The ball changed hands often but territory belonged primarily to the home side, with Brighton only holding the ball for brief counter-attacking breaches into the OC's half. The home side continued to mount pressure but struggled to create chances of note.

The defining feature of recent fixtures between the two sides has been the ability to convert penalty corners and change the momentum of the game. Earlier in the season, it was four penalty corner goals that gave OCs a 5-1 win at Blatchington Mill. Cranleighans won the first corner of the game but were met with a resolute Brighton defence, before Brighton struck an OCs leg and were awarded with a corner of their own in the 31st minute.

The injection veered away from the stopper at the top of the circle, forcing Adam Flett to control it himself. Managing to make the haphazard appear coordinated, Flett dragged the ball into the circle and fired through the legs of a disorientated Lukas Elgoff in the OCs goal. Brighton were 1-0 up in an unattractive way, but they were up nonetheless.

The half ended with a threatening response from Cranleighans, permitted by a lapse from the newly-established leaders. After a loose defensive touch in the circle, OCs found the back of the net, but Brighton were saved by a whistle awarding a penalty corner before the shot was taken. Chris Borsoi saved well from the top right corner and the game was in Brighton’s favour at half-time.

The fixture so familiar to both teams was being played in a familiarly back-and-forth style. Whereas in previous meetings OCs had taken their chances and the game, this time Brighton were ahead, if only for one moment of excellence from their captain.

Into the second half, blows continued to be traded in either direction, both sides aware of the fragility of their place in the table and the points still available in the game. Elsewhere, the bottom two - Tunbridge Wells and West Herts - were playing each other and at least one side would be collecting points at the end of the day.

Both OCs and Brighton were operating with starkly different playing squads to their last meetings. Whilst the two teams had seen a similar turnover, the Cranleighans group seemed the less cohesive. Early in the final quarter, the home side fed a stray ball into the path of Brighton’s new signing Rio Tuson. With a wide open half in front of him and Juan Sosa to his side, the New Zealander charged through the centre of the pitch, drawing two recovering defenders before being fouled at the top of the circle.

A penalty stroke was awarded with Tuson having been in the act of shooting and Brighton had a chance to double their advantage in an evenly-balanced game. Flett fired into the bottom right corner to score his and Brighton’s second.

In the final minutes, the more-cohesive Brighton dominated territory and possession, winning a corner that Adam Flett fired home for his hat-trick goal, a powerful drag-flick to the top left of the backboard. Now at 3-0, the game was well managed by the visitors, who kept the ball away from their half and combined far more smoothly than the home players.

Cranleighans gave possession away one final time, the ball flying off the sideline five metres from the nearest player, and the final whistle sealed the game.

Three points leaps Brighton up to sixth place, whereas Cranleighans drop into the relegation zone. Whilst the fixture itself and the back-and-forth style of the game were familiar, this time it had been Brighton who had taken their chances, galvanised by a more unified squad in the face of change for both teams.

Brighton’s strong away form continues, having lost just one game all season on the road, but they now face two home games to extend their distance from the bottom two. Both Hampstead & Westminster 2s and Tunbridge Wells await at 6pm on the next two Saturdays: six points at a well-supported Blatchington could be what seals survival in the National League for this hugely improved Brighton side."

EHL Conference East Week 13 results: Tunbridge Wells 5 West Herts 1, Bromley & Beckenham 2 Hampstead & Westminster 0, London Wayfarers 3 Surbiton 1, Wimbledon 1 Spencer 4, Old Cranleighan 0 Brighton & Hove 3.

Other results

BHHC 2s 3 East Grinstead 2s 3
Lewes 6s 2 BHHC 8s 5
BHHC 9s 2 Crawley 4s 1
BHHC 10s 2 Eastbourne 5s 1