Match Report
County League - Division One
| East Preston 2 | Horsham YMCA 0 |
Huckett 33
Briggs 43 | |
Date: 5th April 2003
by Russell Staves
at The Lashmar
MONTY'S Pass was not the only thing that romped home on Saturday as East Preston cantered past a lame YM whose inability to play on inferior playing surfaces cost them again.
Put YM on their flat Gorings Mead pitch and you will struggle to find a better passing team in the division. But the cobbled East Preston pitch, like Selsey's two weeks before, nullified their flowing football as the ball bobbled up and hit players on the shin or knee when they tried to control it, and striking the ball was a lottery.
East Preston continued to thump long balls in behind the YM back three, almost by-passing the midfield in the process, but the visitors unwisely persisted with their passing game when they might have been better suited by taking a leaf out of the hosts' book and playing route one football.
The home side took the lead when the usually reliable Jason Dumbrill could only palm a high ball onto the cross bar and Matt Huckett headed home the rebound.
YM were denied a penalty when Nick Flint was fouled in the box and the visitors' misery was compounded a minute later when Josh Briggs headed unchallenged past Dumbrill for number two.
"We did not have the basic football skills today," said YM manager John Suter, who admitted to kicking a few plastic cups during his post-match team talk.
"We've had a real slanging match after. On pitches like this, it's not about good games of football, it's about winning. You have got to adapt to pitches like this, long balls, diagonal balls. We get frustrated and don't play well," he said.
"Two games ago we played Selsey and lost 1-0 on a pitch like this. Then we beat Redhill 2-0 and their manager said we were the best team they have played. Today, we got frustrated and didn't play well. I knew what it was going to be like after ten minutes, I could have gone home," he added.
The last time East Preston keeper Jez Long faced YM, he picked the ball out of the net 22 times for Littlehampton during a record breaking October evening but the keeper suffered no repeat of that nightmare and was untroubled. "We did not get a shot on target, we did not create chances. The only thing we looked dangerous from was free-kicks – we won three headers in the first half," Suter added.
On a warm spring afternoon, neither side had much success when they tried to get the ball down and pass and it looked like Nick Flint's set-pieces might be YM's best chance of scoring.
In the eighth minute, Mark Francis headed wide from Flint's free-kick and Sean Duffy nearly turned the ball into his own net minutes later from another precise dead-ball delivery from the YM forward.
The hosts nearly responded in similar fashion. After Scott Langridge was booked for a foul, an unmarked Russell Tomlinson headed Huckett's free-kick wide to cheers from the home fans lining the clubhouse touchline who thought it had crept inside Dumbrill's far post.
"It's a bloody lottery," said Suter as he stood outside his dugout, and how he must have wished for a bit more luck when Langridge's glancing header from Flint's curling free-kick drifted just wide of the far post.
But any luck deserted YM in the 33rd minute when East Preston took the lead. Dumbrill lost his bearings as a hopeful up and under looped towards goal. He tipped the ball against the bar but the rebound fell to Huckett who headed in from six yards.
The hosts' goalscorer and captain should have done better on 39 minutes after bundling his way into the box but he snatched at his shot and sent the ball sailing over the bar.
YM's frustration with the pitch was beginning to show but their plight was not helped a minute later when referee Gavin Currie turned down their appeals for a penalty after Chris Yelling tripped Flint in the box. It looked a stonewall penalty but Mr Currie, in a voice that could have been used in The Exorcist, shouted "play on".
East Preston scored their second two minutes from the break, and it was another goal that YM could have avoided. Langridge, who incurred the wrath of Mr Currie's whistle all afternoon, was penalised for another foul on the far touchline but the YM defender picked the ball up and placed it where the foul was committed rather than hurry back into the box to defend the set-piece.
Huckett showed initiative, took the free-kick quickly and chipped the ball over Langridge down the line. Dave Hall crossed to the far post where Simon Clayton cushioned a header back across goal and the unmarked Josh Briggs nodded home.
YM showed a bit more purpose in the second half and only Long's clean handling prevented Matt Duffield steaming in on Flint's driven cross.
Micky Hennessey showed a rare moment of class after he burst into the box from Flint's through ball but after sending two tracking defenders flying past him by putting his foot on the ball, he was robbed as he was about to pull the trigger.
Flint and Wayne Potter started bickering between themselves as YM aimed their frustrations on each other.
Dumbrill nearly gifted East Preston a third in the 76th minute when he threw the ball to Dave Walker on the edge of the box but the home striker pulled his shot wide with the goal at his mercy.
Walker's miserable afternoon continued when he missed from 12 yards after Ian Fenn had misjudged Hall's long ball.
East Preston should have wrapped the game up in style when Seb Keet burst into the box but he ignored the shouts of an unmarked Huckett and shot straight at Dumbrill. "He must have had his blinkers on," joked one spectator.
YM travel to Whitehawk tomorrow who are also chasing second spot.
Team: Dumbrill; Fenn, McCreadie, Langridge; Duffield, Hennessey (Carden 69), Potter, Oakes, O'Hara (Sleat 77); Flint, Francis (Taylor 69).