Pre-season Friendly
Priory Lane, Eastbourne
Admission: £5.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 150 (estimate)
Match Rating: 2
Following my earlier game at Lancing, I caught the train back along the south coast, via Brighton, to catch this 3pm kick off game. One of the attractions was to watch a team representing the club I support, Charlton Athletic, field a team, although it would be a case of hoping to gain a glimpse of the future at this game, with the club also fulfilling a fixture at Welling United today, which the club advertised as their first team fixture and in which they would field different teams in each half.
Priory Lane is about a 15 minute walk from Pevensey & Westham train station, and there have been no noticeable improvements made to the stadium since my last visit in spring 2017 - if I were to be critical, it is looking a little shabby in places, with several broken and very weathered signs - but all in all, it is a very neat stadium more than suitable for hosting National League South football. No programmes nor team sheets were issued for this game.
It was a beautiful afternoon for watching football, under blue skies and sunshine, with it being warm but not too hot. Unfortunately, entertainment on the pitch was in short supply, with both sides struggling to mount meaningful attack, particularly during the first half.
Both teams made multiple changes at half time, interestingly for Eastbourne more established players gave way to more fringe players, whilst the opposite was true for Charlton, with several several triallists, who had done little to impress, gave way to stronger looking players, although still very young. As the game reached its conclusion, Charlton managed to create some decent chances to score, but their shooting was wayward, and Eastbourne came close to scoring when Marvin Hamilton's shot hit a post. But as a goalless draw looked a certainty, Charlton scored the winner three minutes from time when 16 year old Jeremy Sarmiento, who has been rumoured to be attracting the interest of Manchester City, received a pass inside the area before firing the ball high into the net. The game then meandered to an uneventful conclusion, following a game that will not live long in the memory, but was no doubt a useful workout for Charlton's very youthful team, and for Eastbourne's more experienced players facing a style of play they are probably unlikely to encounter regularly in their league campaign.
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