Southern Combination League Premier Division
Little Common Recreation Ground, Bexhill-on-Sea
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 109
For my first midweek action in a month, I decided to pay my sixth visit of the season to the Little Common Recreation Ground, to watch something of a local derby, with former tenants hosting their former landlords - Little Common shared Eastbourne United's home ground The Oval for three seasons, while the Little Recreation Ground did not satisfy ground grading regulations.
Little Common came into this game firmly in mid table, in eleventh place in the 20 club division, following 14 wins and four draws from their 28 league games, indeed they are pretty anchored there, six points behind the club immediately above them, and 13 points above the club immediately below. They came into this game in excellent form, winning their previous three league games, and won seven of their last eight league games. Eastbourne United were in eighth place, following 15 wins and eight draws out of 28 league games, and drew the three league games prior to this fixture. When the clubs met in the reverse fixture back in September, Eastbourne United won 1-0.
On a cool evening, but mercifully dry following quite a wet day, the visitors really should have had this game wrapped up by half time, spending most of the half on the front foot, but were guilty of some shockingly poor finishing when in good positions.
It soon became clear that the visitors would rue their wastefulness, as Little Common were much improved after the break, with Eastbourne United not carrying anyhere near as much of a threat. It was the hosts' turn for a glaring miss on 52 minutes, when the ball was rolled across the goal but an unmarked player, faced with an open goal, couldn't make a meaningful connection with the ball. But they did open the scoring on 57 minutes, when Sam Ellis struck a low powerful shot from just outside the area, taking a deflection to send the ball inside the left hand post. Both sides then missed decent chances, before Little Common doubled their lead on 78 minutes when the ball was launched from deep into the box, with the ball dropping between the Eastbourne keeper and defender, and in the confusion, the ball spilled into the path of Freddie Warren, who tapped the ball home. The visitors did give themselves hope in the 88th minute with what was the goal of the game, Gary Ingram taking the ball from his own half, jinking past several players before eventually striking the ball low across the keeper and inside the far post. And they did have a couple of good chances to snatch an equaliser in the remaining minutes, but in the end Little Common held on for the three points to keep their excellent run going, to seal their fourth win in succession, and 24 points from their last ten games.
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