East Sussex League Division Five
Recreation Ground, Battle
Admission and programme: None
Attendance: 21 (head count)
Match Rating: 3
At the conclusion of the earlier game here, I waited approximately a quarter of about for this game to start.
Battle Baptists II are very much in the hunt for promotion, in third place with 34 points, five points behind Bexhill Rovers and 11 points behind Little Common III, but with three games in hand against both teams.
Despite the wind having died down, this was very much a game of two halves, with Ticehurst dominating the first. They took the lead on 12 minutes when the ball was drilled low from the right of the area into the opposite corner by Darren Nicol with the aid of a deflection wrong footing the goalkeeper. They almost doubled their lead on 41 minutes when their attacker stole possession just inside Battle's half, racing through on goal but the keeper managed to get enough on the eventual shot to deflect the ball wide. Indeed Ticehurst probably would have felt disappointed to have not gone into half time with a more convincing lead, and they would certainly end up regretting that they didn't.
Battle Baptists were a team transformed in the second half, and within two minutes they were level. A free kick from fully 30 yards was hopefully punted towards goal by Matthew Lee, and the keeper must have misjudged the flight and bounce of the ball as he inexplicably swung his leg at the ball, missed it and the ball bounced into the net. Battle took the lead on 64 minutes when their player drove down the left wing before crossing the ball low across the six yard line, the covering defender couldn't get a decisive touch on the ball but Gary Bryant did at the far post, bundling the ball in. Four minutes later and it was 3-1. After spurning an excellent chance moments before, the ball was played around the box before eventually it was drilled in inside the near post by Bryant for his second of the game. It really was all Battle by now and the score could have been anything as Ticehurst seemed to throw in the towel. It wasn't until a minute before time that Battle scored their fourth though. Gary Thompsett showed some lovely skill to clip the ball over a defender and get to the byline, eventually firing in low into the net from a very tight angle. A convincing 4-1 victory made it a good day all round for Battle Baptists, as their first and second teams chase promotion.
No comments:
Post a Comment