Sussex
County League Division Two
Recreation
Ground, Little Common
Admission
and programme: £4.00
Attendance:
97
Match
Rating: 4
Having
spent most of the week beforehand planning to take in the first competitive
game at Maidstone United’s new stadium or to pay a visit to Tunbridge Wells to
take advantage of their offer of free admission to mark the 50th
anniversary of the opening of their Culverden Stadium, right at the last minute
I decided on a visit to the south coast which fitted in best with my plans that
evening. A visit to Little Common would be a revisit for me, although the only
time I previously visited was over six years ago during their days in intermediate football
.
The
Recreation Ground is about a twenty minute walk from Cooden Beach rail station,
and has seen some modest improvements since I last visited, in order to retain
their status in senior football. The ground is part of a large recreation area,
with a modern brick clubhouse separating a cricket pitch that one passes on
entering the complex after the car park and the football pitch further on. To
the left of the pitches are housing, whilst to the right of and beyond the
pitches is quite a large expanse of playing fields, with trees lining the top
of a slight incline. On my last visit to the ground, there was a small prefab
metallic stand for standing room only behind the goal where the clubhouse is
situated. This has now been joined by an almost identical structure but housing
50 seats alongside it, placed immediately adjacent to the goal. This stand as
well as floodlights have been installed in the last few months. The pitch is
“enclosed” by green see-through sheeting, and as this is fairly loosely attached
to the railings, means that the areas along one length and behind one of the
goals is inaccessible. The programme, included with admission, was a good
effort although not as good as I remember it being on my last visit. It
contained six pages of articles inside a six page advertising shell.
It was only
confirmed that Little Common would play this season in senior football in June,
after some fairly farcical decisions and appeals regarding the constitution of
the Sussex League, and they only narrowly avoided being in a relegation place
on playing merit last season, finishing third bottom. They have certainly
started this season well though, winning their opening game of the season 0-4
at Wick. Midhurst and Easebourne, also seemingly eternally threatened with
relegation to intermediate football by both league placings and their very
basic facilities which lack floodlights in recent seasons, opened their season
with a 1-1 draw at Saltdean United. Last season they finished one place above
Little Common, having conceded a whopping 102 goals from 34 games.
On a
blisteringly hot afternoon, with blue skies and temperatures nudging 30c, the
game certainly had a blistering start, when the visitors opened the scoring
with barely a minute on the clock, when some tentative defending allowed Oliver
Pearce to stride forward before placing a rocket of a shot past the keeper. On
18 minutes the game was delayed for around five minutes when the referee
ordered that some dog mess was removed from the pitch, before Midhurst doubled
their advantage on 28 minutes, when the keeper seemed to be favourite to claim
a cross into the box from wide, but somehow Pearce headed home for his second
of the match. By the time half time arrived, Midhurst will have wondered how
they hadn’t scored four or give to put this game to bed, so dominant they were,
so limited Little Common were, and it really was a wonder, on the evidence so
far, how Little Common had won so convincingly at Wick last week.
In the
second half, Little Common played much better although they rarely looked
capable of getting back into the game, and ten minutes from time, Midhurst had
yet another chance to seal the three points when a shot was screwed horribly
wide from close range. They were made to pay for their profligacy
when seven minutes from
time, Jared Lusted hit a beautiful shot on the turn from just outside the area
which went over the keeper and into the net. On 89 minutes, the home side
equalised, when a perfectly judged whipped in cross was nodded home just before
it reached the keeper. This was devastating blow to the visitors, who seemed to
lose their discipline slightly after the equaliser, and they could easily have
ended up losing the game, when deep into injury time, Little Common hit the
post and then had a shot deflected wide, although the passage in play was
separated by a wonderful last ditch tackle denying a Midhurst goal. But in the
end, honours were even after a very entertaining game of football, and credit
to both teams for that playing in such hot conditions.
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