Sussex Senior Cup 1st Round
The Polegrove, Bexhill-on-Sea
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 173
After a month without taking in any midweek football, a home game for Bexhill United was enough to tempt me out this evening.
I noticed a nice enhancement for the first time this evening an eye catching, very professional looking fixture board position just above the perimeter fence and next to the main entrance of the recreation ground. An excellent way to increase awareness of games taking place at the Polegrove, and to enhance the club’s identity there.
After a fairly shaky start to their first season back in the top flight of the Southern Combination League Premier Division, Bexhill United have been in great form, unbeaten in their last eight league games - a run started the last time I watched Bexhill play, with a 2-1 win at home to Lingfield. They came into this game in fifth place in the table, following eight wins and four draws from their opening 15 league games. On paper, this game looked something of a home banker, with Wick plying their trade in the division below, and they came into this game in 12th place in Division One, following four wins and two draws from their opening 13 league games.
On a mild but rather breezy evening by the sea, the first half saw Bexhill do most of the attacking, although Wick held their own and were proving a tough nut to crack as Bexhill struggled to break the visitors' defence. On 5 minutes, Bexhill saw a free kick parried away, whilst on 9 minutes, a curling shot on the run by Bexhill's talisman Jack Shonk flew just over the far post with keeper beaten. On 22 minutes Evan Archibald received the ball just inside the area following a fortunate deflection off a defender, but his chipped shot was caught by the keeper, while on 36 minutes another free kick was well parried by the keeper.
Into the second half and it appeared that Bexhill had opened the scoring on 53 minutes, when Archibald ran onto a chipped ball into the box and slotted the ball home, but the linesman quickly raised his flag for offside. But on 64 minutes, Bexhill finally broke the deadlock when a curling cross from the right wing by 17 year old Ollie Hull was met by Archibald, and although his volleyed shot went into the keeper's body before bouncing out, the officials ruled that the ball had crossed the line. I had an excellent view and that appeared to be the correct decision. Bexhill made it two on 74 minutes, again Hull was involved after his shot was parried and the ball fell to Archibald, who tapped home. Wick did finally manage to mount some pressure, forcing a couple of corners, but Bexhill made absolutely sure of progression on 84 minutes when a fabulous diagonal ball from virtually his own penalty area by Tom Vickers picked out the run of Hull to run onto and clear of the defence, eventually tapping the ball past the keeper to round off a superb performance from the youngster.
So it was Bexhill who progress to the next round and will hope to draw one of the higher profile clubs who enter the competition in the second round. Credit to Wick for a battling performance, but ultimately paid the price for not carrying much of an attacking threat on the night.
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