Match Report
Ryman League: Division One South
 Horsham YMCA 9Manton 13, 88 Huckett 47 Geard 60 Lawley 63 Geddes 65, 69,90 Sadough 75 |  Eastbourne Town 0 0 |
Match Ball Sponsor: Gordon Head | Source: West Sussex County Times |
HORSHAM YMCA have been told time and again this season to be more clinical in front of goal — and that was emphatically answered in a 9-O Boxing Day demolition of Eastbourne Town.
There were eight second half goals as YM laid siege to their ‘derby’ rivals, who were reduced to nine men for the last half an hour.
Gavin Geddes came off the bench to smash in a 25 minute treble while Tom Manton helped himself to a brace. Astonishingly, YM were only a goal to the good at half time, when they could have had a ‘four or five goals’ advantage.
Manager Chris White said: "We had threatened to do something like that before this season. We have got ourselves in fron, in games previously and were not finishing teams off”.
"lt was very clinical in the second half."
Eastbourne were bright in the opening few moments of the game, but once the home side hit their stride they were barely in it. Manton opened the scoring after 13 minutes, and when Liam Baitup was sent off for handball six minutes later, there was a sense of foreboding in the Eastbourne ranks.
Terry Dodd missed the resulting spot kick however, and despite chances for Dodd, Luke Gedling and Matt Geard, YM could not add to the advantage.
"Once we got the first one, you could see they had no confidence," White remarked.
Mike Huckett doubled the advantage a couple of minutes after the interval, but it still took until the hour mark for the floodgates to open.
Geard, playing just behind front man Dodd, was on target with the third and when Greg Manton was sent for an early shower seconds later, that signalled a glut of goals.
Tom Lawley’s goal was swiftly followed by two for Geddes to put YM six goals ahead, before Shaheen Sadough made it 7-0 after coming off the bench. Manton scored his second two minutes from time, and there was still enough on the clock for Geddes to compound Eastbourne’s misery and complete his hat trick.
The result cost Eastbourne manager Ady Colwell as he stood down with his team second bottom, eight points adrift of the now 16th Horsham YMCA.
White added: "The moment we start to think that we are safely clear of those teams down at the bottom we will be dragged back into it. We have got to go there (Eastbourne) on Saturday, and it will not be a 9-0 game. We have got to continue to push away."
YMCA (4-4-1-1): Di Bernardo; Watts, Cooney, Metoatt, Brake; Huckett (Sadough 55), Gedling; Manton, Lawley; Geard (Westcott 75); Dodd (Geddes 65).