Bexhill United 1 v 0 AFC Uckfield Town

Wednesday 2nd November 2022, Kick-off 19.30
Southern Combination League Premier Division

The Polegrove, Bexhill-on-Sea

Admission: £6.00

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 147

After three consecutive midweeks trekking up to The Valley straight from work, not returning home until gone midnight, it was a something of a relief that I had a much more local game to take in this midweek, having unusually chosen to miss Bexhill's midweek home game in the Sussex RUR Cup last Wednesday, as it was sandwiched between a Charlton home game on the Tuesday and my Welsh language learning class on the Thursday.

Bexhill have continued to be in good form recently, coming into this game in seventh place, following seven wins and a draw from their opening 13 league games. They did lose at home to leaders Broadbridge Heath on Saturday, which was impressively their first defeat in the league at The Polegrove in three years. AFC Uckfield Town came into this game in 16th place, following five wins and a draw from their 13 league games.

Although this was a mild evening for November, conditions were extremely windy throughout, which undoubtedly was why this was a scrappy game, as the players understandably struggled to come to terms with the conditions. Uckfield had a great chance to take the lead with just four minutes on the clock when the ball was played low towards the penalty area, drawing the Bexhill keeper out, but caught in no-mans-land, the Uckfield player tapped the ball to one side before striking just wide of an open goal, albeit from some distance. That was as close as either side came to opening the scoring in what was quite an even half of football

Into the second half and Bexhill started to create some more chances, and on 71 minutes they were awarded what looked like a generous penalty, after a corner was delivered dangerously into the box close to the keeper, but although the ball was scrambled away, the referee claimed to have spotted a push in the box. and pointed to the spot. Evan Archibald converted low in the bottom left corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. Uckfield barely threatened throughout the remainder of the game, as Bexhill claimed the win which lifted them a place in the table, up to sixth.