Southern Combination League Premier Division
Little Common Recreation Ground, Bexhill-on-Sea
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 202
For the start of what will be a busy week of groundhopping, I started off this evening with a cross-town derby, which was postponed from its originally scheduled date of Easter Monday due to heavy rain.
Both clubs have had decent seasons, with Little Common coming into this game in 11th place in the table, following 17 wins and six draws from their 36 league games. With just one game left to play after tonight's they are guaranteed to finish in 11th, but a top ten finish is still within their sights - they trailed Hassocks by three points, and had a four goal inferior goal difference, but had tonight's game in hand. Their recent form had been quite good, winning two and drawing two of their last five games. Bexhill are guaranteed to finish at least in ninth place, the position they occupied going into this game, following 21 wins and two draws from their 36 league games. But in a congested top half of the table, just two points separated them from fifth placed Eastbourne United, and five points from fourth placed Steyning Town. Their recent form has been good, winning three of their last four league games, but a defeat surprisingly came at home to bottom placed Roffey. But the end of the season is tinged with a little sadness for Bexhill, as it was recently announced that the management team of Ryan Light and John Masters will be leaving the club at the end of this season, following seven extremely successful years, taking the club from a team struggling in the second tier of the Southern Combination League to one competing strongly in the top flight, attracting much higher levels of support, and doing much to enhance the development of the club off the field.
On a sunny evening which became chilly on nightfall, the first half saw Little Common probably having the better of the play, and yet it was Bexhill who had the clearest chances to opening the scoring. But on 36 minutes, Little Common saw a shot come back off the bar, whilst on 41 minutes, an excellent run down the right ended with the ball being crossed into the area, but it was headed into the ground before bouncing just wide.
Little Common started the second half quite strongly, but Bexhill gained more and more control of the game as the half wore on, and looked the more likely to snatch the win as the game wore on, with the Little Common keeper making some decent saves while other shots drifted just wide. Little Common did threaten on the break, but in the end, the game finished goalless, which was not really an appropriate reflection on what was an entertaining and keenly fought local derby.
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