Match Report
County League - Division One
| Horsham YMCA 0 | Arundel 2 |
| | Huckett 34, 90 |
Date: 21st April 2003
at Gorings Mead
ANGRY YM manager John Suter stormed onto the pitch and confronted referee Chris Pearce after his decision to turn down the hosts' claim for a last minute penalty may have cost them the runners-up spot.
Trailing to Simon Clayton's fourth minute header, YM looked like they had been given a lifeline when Mr Pearce spotted Russell Tomlinson pulling Micky Hennessey's shirt inside the penalty area. The referee rightly blew his whistle but inexplicably gave a foul just outside the 18-yard box.
David Oakes placed the ball two yards inside the area to show where he thought the foul was committed but Mr Pearce was having none of it and moved the ball a yard outside the box. To rub salt into the wound, the set-piece came to nothing and East Preston broke moments later and wrapped the game up when the impressive Matt Huckett headed in a rebound.
"It was a penalty," insisted Suter, who was still seething half an hour after the final whistle. "He must have known because his position was superb, it could not have been anything else. We would have scored from the penalty and shut up shop."
Suter is not a Neil Warnock type manager who berates referees and was surprised with his display at the final whistle, despite the fact that Mr Pearce had further angered the YM manager by sending off Dean Carden for two bookable offences 15 minutes before the end.
"When have you seen me do that?" he asked when recounting the beeline he made for the referee. "I apologised for stalking out there, but I felt fully justified. I could not be more incensed or disappointed.
"The ref said 'for it to be a penalty, it had to be inside the 18-yard box, and it was not'. It was a yard inside the box and if that is the first time he has seen it then it should be a penalty. We all make mistakes in football, but the only people that can't admit they are wrong are the referees," he said.
But the penalty decision aside, Suter admitted that the busy yet unspectacular East Preston were good value for their victory and only the excellent keeping of Jason Dumbrill and some wayward finishing prevented the visitors making the winning margin wider. They continually hit their opponents on the break, often outnumbering YM at the back, but it was a tight contest until Huckett's late goal.
"We have not played well enough to win the game, East Preston played well enough to win. We were doing better in the second half but we gave the ball away far too often in their half and let them break," he added.
YM started the game knowing that wins from their two remaining would be enough for second place, but got the worst start imaginable when an unmarked Clayton powerfully headed Huckett's chipped corner past Dumbrill from eight yards.
Brett Neal nearly made it two with a carbon copy of Clayton's opener as the visitors made most of the running, with the bleach blonde Huckett behind most of their good work. He had the ball in the back of the net in the 34th minute, after he redirected Chris Yelling's mishit shot past Dumbrill, but the East Preston captain was adjudged offside.
David Oakes broke his YM duck in bizarre style against Whitehawk the week before and he nearly doubled his tally in equally spectacular fashion but Sean Duffy headed his corner off the line.
Both teams should have scored as the half came to a close. Scott Langridge's no-nonsense defending has won many admirers since his move to Gorings Mead but he sold Dumbrill dreadfully short with a back-pass and was only reprieved by Dave Walker's weak lob into the keeper's arms.
YM's chance came three minutes into time added on after Matt Duffield, Wayne Potter and Ryan Andrews combined to spread the ball wide to the effervescent Carden on the right. He delivered the perfect cross for Gil Taylor's driving run but the striker headed over the bar.
The hosts got caught short at the back in the 58th minute as Ian Fenn lay injured in the East Preston box and only another superb save by Dumbrill to deny Walker kept YM within touching distance.
Russell Tomlinson was in the right place to hack the ball off the line three minutes later after Joel O'Hara's up and under had bounced over keeper Jez Long and looked certain to be knocked in by Taylor until the visitors' defender intervened.
Suter was in the process of changing from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 when YM were reduced to ten men. Carden, who was booked in the 69th minute for an off-the-ball altercation with Walker, was given his marching orders six minutes later.
As Long tried to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick, Carden made a last ditch effort to try and win the ball, taking the keeper out in the process. It was the sort of incident that you see numerous times over the season and Carden was not the only one surprised when Mr Pearce showed him another yellow card.
YM kept coming forward and nearly equalised when Taylor turned and shot over the bar from ten yards after Oakes' corner had caused problems.
Dumbrill saved his team's blushes again four minutes from the end when he used both hands to palm wide Lee Gibbs' drive and then somehow kept out Tomlinson's header from the resulting corner that was arrowing into the bottom corner.
But there was nothing Dumbrill could do about Huckett's injury time strike. YM were still bemused by Mr Pearce's decision and were caught by another counter-attack after O'Hara and Nathan Sleat had combined to lose possession on the left. East Preston broke at pace and although Dumbrill saved Gibbs' initial shot, Huckett headed in the rebound.
The defeat means Whitehawk, who YM thrashed 4-1 two weeks ago, can steal second place if they win their three games in hand.
Team: Dumbrill; Carden, Langridge, Fenn, Oakes; Duffield, Potter, Andrews (Sleat 74), O'Hara; Flint (Francis 84), Taylor.