Sussex Senior Cup Second Round
The Polegrove, Bexhill-on-Sea
Admission: £4.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 138
Match Rating: 3
This evening I decided to take in another local midweek game, to watch another David and Goliath clash at the Polegrove, after witnessing a terrifically brave, but ultimately fruitless, performance against a team (Haywards Heath Town) two steps higher in the pyramid four weeks ago ago. This evening promised to be even tougher for the home side though, with the visiting club firmly established three steps higher.
Bexhill United have continued their very good form in the Step 6 Southern Combination League Division One, and were in second place, having won nine and drawn one of their opening 12 league games, winning their last four league games, as well as progressing 0-5 away on Saturday to progress to the next round of the divisional cup. To set up this evening's fixtures, they won 2-7 at Billingshurst in the previous round. Since being promoted into the Step 3 Isthmian League Premier Division in 2015, Burgess Hill have just about survived relegation in each season, finishing no higher than 20th in the 24 team division, and the signs are that this season will be no different, as they currently sit third bottom, following two wins and five draws from their 14 league games.
On a mild, dry but very windy evening, this would turn out to be remarkably similar to the game against Haywards Heath - a very strong, defensively organised performance by the home team to combat the clear gulf in quality with their opponents, more than holding their own, but were beaten by just the one goal and with a bit of luck, they could have forced extra time at the very least. As to be expected, Burgess Hill dominated possession from the off, as Bexhill tended to sit back and soak up pressure, and the visitors did not look particularly threatening - the closest they came to opening the scoring coming on ten minutes when a free kick went into the keeper's midriff, but the ball spilled gently goalwards before being gathered in time. As the half wore on, Bexhill managed to get forward a little more, and on 20 minutes, 21 goal Jack Shonk took the ball down the left before cutting inside and firing a long distance shot just over the bar. But just as it looked like Bexhill would get to half-time level, the visitors scored. A fast move through the middle ended up with the ball being slipped into the path of Pat Harding, who passed the ball first time into the net.
Bexhill started the second half really well, creating some decent chances, the pick of which came on 52 minutes when half time sub Jack McLean ran into a defender's header back to the keeper, just getting to the ball before the keeper, lifting it goalwards but it was headed away by a defender. Burgess Hill then had perhaps their best spell of the game in search of a probably decisive second goal, and although they came close a couple of times, Bexhill stayed well in the game right up to the final whistle, as the visitors seemed to make little effort to close the game out. But in the end, the visitors did scrape through, and in truth fairly comfortably so, always looking the better team, but all of the praise should go to Bexhill for another brave performance, defying the wide gap in status with their opponents, but can now concentrate more on their main focus of achieving promotion to the top flight of the Southern Combination League. They look in great shape to do just that, albeit much can change over the long winter months.
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