East Sussex League Premier Division / Division One Supplementary Cup
Crowhurst Recreation Ground, Crowhurst
Admission & Programme: None
Attendance: 10 (approximate)
This evening I continued a busy week of midweek action with a revisit to the scenic venue of the Crowhurst Recreation Ground.
The Crowhurst Recreation Ground is situated to the south of the very small and rather isolated village of Crowhurst, about five miles north of Hastings, or three miles south of Battle, A reasonably sized car park is located just inside the entrance, immediately beyond which is a cricket field, with the football pitch located furthest from the car park. In between the two, an attractive wooden pavilion is located to the edge of the ground, with a further wooden hut for youths partially hidden behind. The ground is extremely picturesque and pleasing on the eye, closed lined by a hill covered in tall trees behind one length, with rolling farmland behind the other, and a tennis court behind the end opposite the cricket field. There is no football furniture present here, and although on my last visit, a paper programme was produced, none was for this evening, and indeed I think the club stopped producing some time ago.
Crowhurst were going great guns in the East Sussex League Premier Division when it was curtailed, top of the table, having won five and drawn two of their nine league games, and so this supplementary campaign has been quite disappointing, without a win from their opening five games, drawing four of them. Battle Town II had an average season in the second tier, Division One, winning one and drawing two of their six league games, and in this competition, have won two and lost the other two of their four games so far.
Following pleasant early evening sunshine ahead of kick off, clouds of increasing intensity soon arrived after kick-off, with intermittent rain then falling throughout the game. The first half saw the visitors create most of the chances, but the balance of play was fairly even, with the visitors opening the scoring on 42 minutes following a good flick of the ball the run clear of the defence before the ball was dinked over the keeper and into the net.
So there was only one goal in it at the break and all to play for, however the visitors would soon take the game away from Crowhurst in a devastating spell. They doubled their lead on 48 minutes after a good touch to make some space before the ball was drilled low past the keeper, and three minutes later, Battle scored their third. Crowhurst had a good chance to get back in the game on 53 minutes when a decent run in from wide ended with a shot into the side netting, but any hope was extinguished two minutes later when Battle scored their fourth when the ball was struck into the top right corner. Things started to turn a little ugly for Crowhurst a minute later when a corner was expertly dinked over the keeper to the far post, and the ball was headed in from close range at the far post. And Battle made it six on 67 minutes when the ball was poked home when the keeper and a defender couldn't deal with the ball. In truth the scoreline could have been far worse for Crowhurst but for an excellent performance by their keeper, who pulled off several good saves. But credit to Crowhurst, they did keep battling away and they were rewarded with what was the goal of the game on 89 minutes when the ball was curled into the area and sub Jordan Turner volleyed the ball across the keeper and into the net.
This heavy defeat confirmed that Crowhurst have just one game left to play, their final group game on Saturday will be their last competitive game of the season, whilst Battle Town II know that winning their remaining two games will probably be enough for them to win the group and qualify for the final.
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