14^th January 2006

 The second and last game in January saw us travel to East Grinstead where, despite taking the lead and a good battling performance, we lost by 2-1.

We were weakened further with the absence of skipper Tim Burchett (broken toe) in addition to Mayhew and Felstein who were still out. Into the starting line up came Dave Mumford at sweeper for his first start of the season, and new signing Matt Hughes starting in the middle of the park with Brian Gow dropping to the bench. We started the game well and with a high tempo, which saw us create a few half chances. The majority of our success came on the break as we soaked up pressure and then broke quickly, with Adam Smith ably supported by McDougall being particularly successful. It was one of these quick counter attacks that won us a corner from which we took a deserved lead; the corner was only half cleared and fell to Richard Ambrose on the edge of the box who unleashed a rocket into the back off the net. We then tried gifting East Grinstead an equaliser; firstly Clift saved Harrison’s blushes after he had got caught in possession as last man. And thankfully the East Grinstead striker saved Clift’s blushes when he scuffed a goal kick straight to him without a defender in sight. However this did not stop the inevitable as more sloppy defending gave Grinstead a corner, which was firmly headed home by a defender up from the back. We started the second half with the score still at 1-1 but it was East Grinstead who came out with renewed vigour and energy that dominated proceedings. We were unable to find an outlet during the second half, and the mounting pressure finally told after twenty minutes. A cross-field ball catching the out numbered defence, before the striker despatched the ball in to the net via the post. We never looked like getting back into the game and were unable to create any sort of chance before the final whistle.

Ninety minutes from both Cairns and Mumford was a positive as was the promising debut from Hughes. MOM was awarded to Adam Smith for by far his best performance of the season.

 

 

1	Matt Clift
2	Kevin McDougall
3	Richard Ambrose
4	Dave Mumford
5	Karl Harrison
6	Martin Verrall
7	Matt Hughes
8	Andy McPhail
9	Phil Pedley (C)
10	Adam Smith
11	Stu Cairns
12	Brian Gow
14
15
	Goal Scorer: Richard Ambrose