A solid performance at home to Crowborough Athletic Colts in the fog. With regular goalie Jamie Hards rested, along with regulars Martin Hill and Chris Newbury, we weren't at full strength, but Crowborough only had ten players. They got a lot of players behind the ball and kept us out through a mixture of good goalkeeping and poor finishing until the 15th minute when Ben Spring put Ross McCarter through and he made no mistake.
After 25 minutes Mike Ide doubled our advantage with a great shot over the keeper and he broke clear seven minutes later (though with a suspicion of offside) to score again. He nearly made it a hat-trick in the next minute, but Ross McCarter was on hand to add the final touch to his left-foot shot.
Crowborough put our defence under more pressure in the second half, but Tom Ryan and Chris Stewart were very solid. Eight minutes into the half Ben Spring scored with a brilliant shot from outside the area and Ian Dipple scored with a well-placed shot three minutes later. Ross McCarter got his hat-trick in the 59th minute and was unlucky not to get another, but he was offside when he slid in to convert a shot from Greg Byrne.
Jack Holden did all that was asked of him in goal, the defenders did well and we played some good football in midfield and up front, but man-of-the-match was Chris Phillips who worked hard for seventy minutes and combined well with Ian Dipple and Mark Holden on the right flank. |