Friendly
Palatine Park, Goring-by-Sea
Admission & Programme: None
Attendance: 30 (estimate)
This evening, I decided to make the journey along the south coast to tick off my final ground in all three divisions of the Southern Combination League. I managed to do that, but not by watching the game I had expected...
Palatine Park is located to the north of the village of Goring-by-Sea, and is quite an impressive complex in its role of primarily providing sporting facilities and opportunities for the local community. The club, which according to its website, has over 40 teams spread across mens, womens and youth football, and are the exclusive tenants of the complex. It is accessed via a short lane, with colourful signage visible from the passing road, and a decent sized car park is available, passing by the large and modern clubhouse en route. The park has multiple pitches sprawled across it, some full size with other smaller sized, and for this evening's fixture, the pitch at the furthest side away from the clubhouse was used. This evening, the pitch was not roped off, nor were any dugouts in place, and was lined along one length by a hedge, bare trees and residential housing, behind one goal there is a busy passing road, whilst behind the other, there is a tall hedge.
This evening's game was originally scheduled as a group game in the Southern Combination League Supplementary Shield. However, Littlehampton United are experiencing some rather turbulent times at present, which has included being served notice that their groundshare at Littlehampton Town is being terminated and there now being insufficient registered players available to play competitive fixtures. And as a result, they have withdrawn from the competition, although the match was still played, as a friendly, with players they managed to cobble together, with a focus on giving younger players their chance. They had lost all three of their games that they had played in this competition, and in the regular league season, they had won three and drawn one of their eleven games. Worthing Town had won three and drawn four of their ten regular league games, and in the Supplementary Shield competition, they have won two and drawn the other of their three games, all played away from home. Tonight's teams did meet in the league, at Palatine Park, with that game ending in a 4-4 draw.
On a sunny and reasonably warm evening, for a friendly, this was enjoyable game to watch, played in a competitive spirit. Worthing started on the front foot and duly took the lead on 10 minutes when the ball was passed out to the outer right corner of the penalty area, and struck powerfully into the top right corner, brushing the keeper's fingertips on its way through. Littlehampton equalised on 35 minutes when a lovely through ball beat the offside trap for the forward to run on and coolly slot past the keeper.
Five minutes after the restart, Littlehampton had a golden chance to equalise after a defender's pass was intercepted and eventually the Littlehampton player tapped the ball wide with the goal at his mercy. On 58 minutes, a Worthing cross from the left evaded the first player, and his team mate at the far post saw his fairly gentle shot parried by the keeper. But a minute later, Worthing did go back in front following a corner, when a header was pushed onto the bar by the keeper, but the ball dropped for a simple tap in from very close range. Worthing had some decent chances to score more, but it was not to be.
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