Match Report
Sussex Senior Cup
 Horsham YMCA 0 |  East Preston 0 |
Date: 19th November 2005 Location:Gorings Mead
Source: Steve Payne , West Sussex County Times
YM SLIPPED further behind the league leaders Ringmer on Saturday as they failed to unlock a very secure East Preston defence.
The score was 6-2 to the Gorings Mead men back in August when these sides last met, but the visitors, lying third from bottom, were in no mood to fritter away points this time.
Their manager, former Horsham defender Mark 'Charlie' Chaplin, packed his defence and looked for the breakaway.
But even with a massed defence, YM had chances to take the spoils.
Manager John Suter commented after the game: "They came here to defend and the fact that we couldn't even get offside was because they always had seven or eight people behind the ball.
"They got what they wanted. The last time was 6-2 away and they obviously weren't going to let that happen again.
"It is frustrating, but in games like that you can lose in the last five minutes and Phil Churchill had a shot right at the end which was blocked.
"So we didn't lose it and we got a point, but with all the possession we had and the amount of the game played in their half it was disappointing not to have got the ball into the back of the net at least once."
Matt Russell came into the side and looked like he will be a force to reckon with once he has settled back into the setup.
In fact, his rasping shot was tipped over superbly by inform visiting keeper Darren Prior in the only real moment of quality in the first half.
The second 45 minutes was much the same, with YM busy building attacks, only to see them fizzle out in the last third.
When they did breach the barricades Prior showed his class.
James Grant had one fizzing effort after 61 minutes that was well saved and Glen Woodburn's shot three minutes later was misdirected when he was in a good position.
But the best attack, a sweeping move from midfield, ended in Grant firing just inches wide of the far post.
The YM supporters were bracing themselves for the sucker punch and, despite efforts from Churchill and Matt Axell, it was testament to the YM defence that it too stayed solid.
There was a sting in the tail, though, as Matt Duffield limped off five minutes before the end with hamstring trouble, which could put him out for a few weeks.
Team: (4-4-2): Chatfield; Garden, Carter, Woodburn, Eldridge; Duffield (Levett 85), Westgate, Hopper, Grant; Trevor (Hudai 70), Russell.