Match Report
Sussex Senior Cup
 Horsham YMCA 2Reid 8 Gordon 58 |  Brighton & Hove Albion 5 Barker 25, 73, 75 Hall 37 Smith 66 Woodley 88 |
Match Ball Sponsor:ROBIN BISHOP (TDS) | Words by Tom Norris |
Gorings Mead has seen its fair share of goals this season and Wednesday evening was no exception, as Horsham YMCA crashed out of the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup with a 6-2 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion.
A George Barker hatrick was good enough to secure the Seagulls a place in the third round of the competition, despite a couple of scares from YM on the way.
Assistant YM manager Dean Potter and Youth team boss Phil Fitzgerald took to the YM touchline for the game as a temporary replacement for Colin Jenkinson, who resigned earlier in the week. Fitzgerald, commented, ‘There is nothing to say really. Obviously we are bottom of the league and results haven’t been great but at the start of the season we had nothing – the club had nothing. He (Colin) came in and it was a completely blank sheet to work on. Regardless of the fact that we’re bottom of the league, he’s left the club in a better place than it was. As far as I am aware with the board, he has left on good terms.’
He added, ‘It is important that we try and take a fresh breath of air. The players are good enough, it’s just a lack of confidence and a little bit of naivety at times. We are a very young squad bar one or two lads, and it’s important that we try and learn as quickly as possible from the mistakes that we’re making. It’s important not to let it get too far into the season that we can’t do anything to change the position that we’re in. Dean and I are a short term fix at the minute, but that is only until somebody else comes in.’
And that somebody is John Cumberbatch who was named by the YM committee as the new manager tonight, following the departure of Jenkinson earlier in the week. He will take charge of his first game when YM face Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday, a team only seven places above them in the league. A win would be the perfect start for the new manager who has previous Ryman League experience at Ashford Town (Kent), and more recently with the Academy side at Croydon Athletic.
Cumberbatch watched tonight’s game from the stands, also alongside Brighton manager Gus Poyet and his assistant Mauricio Tarricco. The Uruguayan, Chelsea legend who has so far taken Brighton to the top of the Npower Football League One this season, fielded a side made up of solely Development Squad players. The visitors started the game with a quick tempo that reflected the youthful essence in their line up, but it was YM who surprisingly took the lead in the eighth minute. A route one goal kick upfield from on-loan Charlton Athletic youngster Conor Gough was completely misjudged by the Brighton defence and striker Tony Reid was on hand to fire home. However, the goal didn’t seem to faze the young Brighton side and they continued to play with a style and vigour that made for some impressive viewing. YM ‘keeper Gough stood firm on numerous occasions to keep out the equaliser, before the Seagulls’ persistence eventually paid off. Striker George Barker made amends for two previous missed opportunities by reacting quickest to a shot blocked on the line, scrappily poking the ball home from close range.
As the away side continued to press, the second goal became inevitable and twelve minutes later the visitors had taken the lead through a well worked, short corner. The ball eventually found its way to playmaker James Smith who was on hand to slide the ball across goal for skipper Grant Hall, comfortably tapping into an unguarded net to leave the hosts trailing at the break.
A quiet first ten minutes to the second period saw YM keep the Seagulls at bay, before the home side produced a moment of magic themselves. Speedy winger Antoine Douglas flew past his full back down the YM left, before providing a superb cross for striker Gavin Gordon to head into the roof of the net for the equaliser.
Unfortunately for the hosts, however, Brighton responded in very much the same way they had done to going a goal down in the first half. They stepped up their game and the benefits of full time training began to show. With half an hour still on the clock, the YM players began to feel the effects of the constant chasing down possession and early fatigue set in. Sixteen-year-old Youth team player Matt Merridew continued to work hard in the YM midfield on his first team debut, but the class of the opposition soon outshone even his tiresome work.
Having already provided the assist for the visitor’s second goal, midfielder Smith turned scorer for Brighton’s third as he slid in on the end of a Torbjorn Agdestein cross. Then, shortly after, striker Barker doubled his tally for the evening. He skipped past three YM defenders before rounding off a superb solo effort in style, slotting the ball past the YM ‘keeper from the edge of the box. And it wasn’t long before he was celebrating a well deserved hatrick, as two minutes later he latched onto the end of a superb through ball before coolly stroking the ball past the on-rushing ‘keeper.
YM brought on youngsters Louis Masih and Charlie Abrehart to try and conjure up a late comeback, but it was to no avail as they failed to make the desired impact that was hoped for. The visitors then rounded off a comfortable win in style with their sixth and final goal of the evening, two minutes from time. Some great work yet again from Smith down the Brighton left gave him the space to pull the ball back for Yaser Kasin, whose cheeky dummy allowed substitute Jordan Woodley to leather home a belter of a strike which found the top corner of the net from the edge of the box.
After the game, joint temporary manager Fitzgerald said, ‘There are plenty of positives for us to take out of the game, but a couple of negative bits and pieces second half as well. Three of the goals we conceded in the second half the lads held their hands up to and said that they could appreciate the mistakes had come from things which we’d talked about. It’s just a little bit of naivety against a full time, professional club.’
The former player at YM added, ‘There are plenty of positives to come out of it. The fact that both our strikers got on the score sheet is good. It’s the first time we’ve scored two in a game for a long while and they were both good, clinical goals as well. When we did get possession, at times we knocked it about quite nicely and we kept our shape defensively. It’s just a bit disappointing that, again, we have conceded a lot of goals. It’s something that we definitely need to work on.’
In addition, Fitzgerald commented on the performance of some of his own, Youth team players that made appearances tonight. ‘Matty (Merridew) came out of it with a lot of back slapping at the end. He’s sixteen years old and gone in there against a load of full time pros, even if they are only young full time pros. They still train everyday and get coached by the best coaches and so I am pleased for him.’
‘It’s the same with Louis and Charlie. It’s Charlie’s first game for the first team and although Louis has already got a couple of games under his belt, he’s come on again and showed some nice touches and a good turn of pace. I am pleased as punch for Charlie because he does work his socks off for us. His attitude is fantastic in and around training and during Youth games, and for him to get a little sniff of it tonight, playing against Brighton, is brilliant.’
‘It is important that we get Youth team players coming through so that they know the standard required to play at this level. From my point of view and Cat (Neil Vanson), who I run the Youth team with, it’s fantastic for us to have lads coming up into the first team, even if it is fifteen minutes here and there.’
YM (4-4-2): Gough, Ismail, B Bowra, Harvey, S Bowra, Newman (Sachies 65), Simpson, Merridew (Abrehart 78), Douglas, Reid (c), Gordon (Masih 78)
