Crowhurst 0 v 0 Bexhill United

Thursday 13th July 2023, Kick-off 19.00

Pre-Season Friendly
Recreation Ground, Crowhurst
Admission: Free
Programme: None
Attendance: 50 (estimate)

At the end of a difficult and emotional day, following the funeral of my dear Nan, I decided that it would be better to go out and get some fresh air in the evening, and this game, nice and local in a calm, relaxing and low key setting, fitted the bill perfectly.

This game was originally supposed to be played last Saturday, only for it to be discovered that the pitch had not been prepared. It promised to be an intriguing game. Crowhurst had a decent season in the East Sussex League Premier Division last season, finishing fourth, won the League Cup, and were runners up in the Hastings Intermediate Cup. Quite impressive for a club from a small, relatively isolated village with less than a thousand inhabitants. Their opponents this evening would be from the Southern Combination League Premier Division, three steps above the East Sussex Premier, with Bexhill United finishing in seventh place. It is a slightly transitional time for the club though, with long term and highly successful manager Ryan Light stepping down after seven years in charge, with former development coach John Wright taking over the reins.

On a mostly overcast evening with a cool stiff breeze blowing, this was quite an entertaining game to watch, although Bexhill seemed happy to play gentle possession football in their first friendly of this pre season, while Crowhurst looked to keep things tight, but did have some dangerous moments on the break. Bexhill did have the ball in the back of the net on 23 minutes, when the ball was looped in from the right wing, the ball sailed over the keeper and was tapped in at the far post, but the goal was eventually disallowed for offside. And on 25 minutes, Crowhurst had their best chance to score, when a slide rule pass across goal just evaded a tap in thanks to a deflection off a defender’s boot, and from the resulting corner, the ball was whipped into the box, brushed the keeper’s fingertips as he reach high above, and Karl Tomlin headed the ball against the post. Crowhurst had another chance on 38 minutes when the Bexhill keeper handled the ball outside of the area, but the free kick was fired over the bar.

The second half continued similarly, with Bexhill dominating possession for long periods but Crowhurst were well organised and looked a threat on the break, but despite both sides coming close to scoring, the game finished goalless.