Mid Sussex League
Division 3 South
Saturday 23rd November 2024
Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.59!
Portslade Athletic 4 Lancing United 3, attendance 5
20’ 1-0
27’ 2-0
28’ 2-1
29’ 2-2
29’ 3-2
76’ 4-2
89’ 4-3
@ Hove Park School & Sixth Form Centre (Valley Campus), 3G Pitch
Hangleton Way
Hove
BN3 8AD
No Admission or Programme.
With a number of my first choice games falling victim to the weather early on, I decided to play it safe and go for the easy 3G option, heading down to the Sussex coast, just to the west of Brighton. It began raining again as I headed down the M23 and didn’t stop until the last few minutes of the game, albeit only briefly. This is one of those dreadful cages with no designated spectator area, although there was no problem with watching from inside the fence. Unfortunately, if you want to complete leagues/divisions, you have to put up with these awful set ups occasionally.
The match was 7th versus 4th in the league table. Portslade’s seven league matches coming into this had produced 47 goals, with three matches finishing with a 7-3 scoreline (two were defeats), so I was certainly expecting to see goals. Lancing were the only team in the division yet to lose a game, with a 100% winning start from their four games played, scoring twelve goals so far. The game matched the stats. It was end to end from start to finish. Defending went out of the window and this could easily have finished with both teams reaching double figures. Portslade scored first, with an angled shot into the far corner after twenty minutes. They doubled their lead seven minutes later, sparking a mad spell which saw four goals in just three minutes! A quick fire double saw Lancing make it 2-2, but Portslade regained the lead immediately, when a long ball forward was touched past the ‘keeper into the corner. Somehow, the score remained 3-2 at halftime.
Lancing had a man sent off ten minutes into the second half, for picking up a second yellow card, but they still looked like getting back into it. They hit the post with a header and had a back healed effort also hit the post, with the ‘keeper well beaten, but Portslade managed to finally score their fourth goal with fourteen minutes left, when a cross wasn’t cleared and was finished low into the far corner. They then a header of their own hit the crossbar, before Lancing pulled it back to 4-3 in the dying minutes, but too late to grab an equaliser.
So, another division completed and a step nearer to finishing all the first team venues in Sussex. At least you can count the ones still needed on one hand now.
