Southern Combination League Premier Division
The Beaconsfield, Hailsham
Admission including Programme: £6.00
Attendance: 60 (estimate)
This evening I decided to pay my third visit of the season (already) to The Beaconsfield, as Bexhill United continue having to play their home fixtures in Hailsham, due to cricket continuing to take priority for use of their usual home ground at The Polegrove throughout August.
This match would be a battle of the promoted sides, although neither club have started well this season. Bexhill did win their opening game away at Alfold, lost their next two League games, and were well on their way to losing another, at home to Lingfield, but when losing 0-3, one of the floodlights went out, causing the game to be abandoned. AFC Varndeanians have lost all five their opening league games, and so are rooted to the bottom of the table. Clearly, this gave Bexhill hope for a positive result to kick start their season, but they glaces previously pointless Eastbourne United last Tuesday, but lost 1-3. They were without a game on Saturday. I watched the last League encounter between these sides, last December, and witnessed one of the best games I have watched for a long, long time, which Bexhill won 5-3.
On a pleasantly sunny evening, this game certainly had an explosive start, with two goals scored in the opening two minutes. AFC Varndeanians opened the scoring when the ball was crossed low to the far post, where Gabriel Robinson tapped in from close range. But within a minute, Bexhill equalised, when Evan Archibald got on the end of a ball over the top, sidestepped the keeper, before tapping into an empty net. That certainly seemed to wake Bexhill up, who went on to dominate possession and creating a string of good chances to score. They went into the lead on 11 minutes with a very good goal by Jack Shonk, letting the ball drop over his shoulder and volleying it past the keeper. Varndeanians came close a couple of times around the half hour mark, before Bexhill scored their third on 36 minutes following a diagonal ball forward, which Shonk guided into his path towards goal before drilling low inside the left hand post.
So after falling behind, Bexhill held a fairly comfortable lead by the break, which they fully merited on the balance of play. AFC Varndeanians started the second half well though, with the game being much more even, until the result was put beyond any real doubt on 61 minutes when Bexhill scored their fourth from the penalty spot, Shonk completing his hat-trick with a shot into the bottom left corner after a trip brought a surging run into the box to an end. Bexhill really should have scored plenty more, passing up numerous clear cut chances to score, but in the end it mattered little as they claimed a comfortable win which may well inject some new life in their embryonic season. As for AFC Varndeanians, they did actually quite impress with the quality of their passing football. But they are a young squad of players and were cut open far too easily throughout, meaning that it is already looking like it will be a long old season battling against relegation for them, unless they make some changes to add some experience to their squad.
No comments:
Post a Comment