Pre-season Friendly
Priory Lane, Eastbourne
Admission: £3.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 30 (rough head-count)
With an unusually good choice of local fixtures on a Friday evening, I decided to take in my second all-Southern Combination League pre-season Friendly by paying a revisit to Priory Lane, home of National League South outfit Eastbourne Borough, which is shared as a home venue by Langney Wanderers. It would also be slightly unusual that the home team would be from a division higher than the visitors.
Langney Wanderers have just completed their fifth season in senior football, and their first at Step 5 level, finishing in 15th place in the Southern Combination League Premier Division, ten points clear of the relegation zone. Littlehampton Town finished in sixth place in the division below, Division One, but were some 30 points adrift of a top two promotion spot.
Unsurprisingly, there have been no alterations to the ground since my last visits to Priory Lane last season, and no programmes or team sheets were produced for this evening's fixture.
After a blisteringly hot few days - the record high temperature ever only just being missed yesterday - conditions were considerably cooler and overcast this evening. There was certainly plenty of entertainment for the small crowd, thanks to some excellently energetic and creative play from the hosts, aided by some catastrophic defending by the visitors. With just 3 minutes on the clock, Langney took the lead, when their player ran forward with the ball and with no-one closing him down, lashed the ball home from the edge of the area. They scored again on eight minutes, when a weak back pass was easily intercepted, and the Langney forward strode forward before placing the ball low past the keeper. Littlehampton then had a decent chance on 20 minutes, when a shot on the run went just over the bar, but five minute later Langney scored their third, a slick passing move into the box ended with the ball being struck into the net via a big deflection off the keeper. And on 35 minutes, it was 4-0. The ball was crossed to the back post, and via a deflection, fell at the feet of a defender, but as he dallied, he was dispossessed and the ball was drilled inside the near post. And the scoreline began to look a bit ugly on 40 minutes when Langney scored their fifth. The ball was laid back to a team mate at the edge of the area, and then struck powerfully past a motionless keeper. But on 42 minutes, Littlehampton were awarded a penalty for a pull in the box, and was duly converted into the roof of the net. But within a minute, Langney scored their sixth, following a slick passing move ending with the ball being neatly clipped into the net from just inside the penalty area.
So, a pretty disastrous first half for the visitors, and the second half started in a similar vein when, just two minutes after the restart, Langney were awarded a free kick just outside the area. A Littlehampton player protested too strongly and for too long, and his calling the referee a "a f***ing idiot" resulted in his enforced substitution. The free kick was then dispatched into the top right hand corner, again the keeper was motionless. And the scoreline became 8-1 on 67 minutes following a quick break down the middle, and a shot took a deflection with the ball looping into the goal. As substitutions were made, the game became less one-sided, and Littlehampton's defending went from the catastrophic to being acceptable. And on 73 minutes, Littlehampton were awarded another penalty, this time for a foul tackle as the forward was in full stride, and this penalty was also converted, this time into the left side despite the keeper diving the right way. Both sides had good chances to score again, but it was Littlehampton who would pull another goal back, on 79 minutes, when a free kick was struck into the top left hand corner.
8-3 was how it finished, and the game was as entertaining as the scoreline suggests, with Langney Wanderers playing some lovely, free-flowing football. As for Littlehampton, this was hardly ideal preparation in their final friendly before their league season starts next weekend - one can only hope that tonight's defence was an experimental one. As unusual result as 8-3 is, this was actually the second time I have seen Langney Wanderers win by that scoreline, the previous time back in 2013 when they won a Sussex Intermediate Cup game away to Ovingdean.
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