Southern Combination League Premier Division
The Polegrove, Bexhill-on-Sea
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 170
This evening, I paid my second visit to the Polegrove in three weeks, took in my third game within Bexhill on three consecutive midweeks, and a quirk of the fixture scheduling meant that Peacehaven & Telscombe would pay a return visit to Bexhill-on-Sea, a week after providing the opposition at Little Common.
Bexhill came into this game in 12th place in the table, following four wins and a draw from their opening nine league games, but have lost their last two away games, 3-0 at Newhaven, and 2-1 at AFC Varndeanians on Saturday. When I saw Peacehaven at Little Common last Tuesday, they could have considered themselves very unlucky to have lost, having dominated possession and chances, but followed that up with a 0-4 home defeat to AFC Uckfield Town, who were down in 16th place in the table, on Saturday. They came into this game in eighth place in the table, following five wins and a draw from their opening nine league games.
On a mild but very breeze evening, this was a classic game of two halves, possibly due to the wind, and after a fairly even start, the visitors were soon on the front foot, with Bexhill struggling to get out of their half, and on 22 minutes, Peacehaven were awarded what looked like a fairly soft penalty, when Brandon Kulila was fouled as he took a shot. Robin Deen converted into the bottom right corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. They had a great chance to double their lead, when Kulila headed a corner over from a great central position. By the time half time arrived, Bexhill could probably consider themselves fortunate to be only one goal behind.
And Bexhill posed much more of an attacking threat in the second half, much livelier in their play, and they equalised on 75 minutes when a corner header was met with a glancing header by sub Ollie Hull, to send the ball in off the inside of the far post. And on 83 minutes, the hosts took the lead, when the ball was curled toward the back post, and fellow sub James Hull stretched out a high boot to connect and send the ball over the keeper and inside the far post. And in the sixth minute of added on time, Peacehaven's keeper went up for a corner, but the ball broke away, was launched forward by a Bexhill defender, and the Peacehaven keeper couldn't quite manage to control the ball by the half way line, allowing Evan Archibald to dribble forward towards goal, and despite a couple of defenders desperately trying to catch up, Archibald eventually tapped into the empty net. The second half did have a bit of an edge to it, and this spoiled over after the final whistle, with some pushing between opposition players taking place on the pitch, which the officials eventually happily managed to put a lid on before tempers boiled over too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment