Brighton, Worthing & District League
Saturday 22nd November 2025
Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.58
Lancing Athletic 6 Rottingdean Village 0, attendance 8
10’ 1-0
15’ 2-0
32’ 3-0
54’ 4-0
58’ 5-0
83’ 6-0
@ The Sir Robert Woodard Academy, 3G Pitch
Upper Boundstone Lane
Sompting
BN15 9QZ
No Admission or Programme.
What seems like an endless task, in my attempt to see a game on all the first team venues in the Sussex football pyramid, once more led me to the south coast. This wasn’t my intended game today. I’d turned up at Pond Lane Recreation Ground, in Durrington, the home of St. Marys, the only other ground I needed in the same league, only to find the pitch freshly marked out, but the place totally deserted (the Referee at my second game said he’d heard the home team have been struggling for players recently). It meant a five mile drive east for my backup game, where third in the league table Lancing Athletic were hosting bottom of the table Rottingdean Village, former members of the Sussex County/Southern Combination League’s.
The ground here at The Sir Robert Woodard Academy is just a 3G caged pitch, which despite having no designated spectator area, there was no problem watching from inside the fence, with quite a bit of room between here and the touchline. Lancing had the wind at their backs for the first half and made the most of it, racing into a 2-0 lead in the first quarter of an hour, the opener coming after a corner wasn’t cleared from the box and the second a long punt forward that saw the bounce totally misjudged by the ‘keeper and it cleared his fingertips as he stretched desperately to atone for his error. The third goal was curled into the far corner just after the half hour mark and it remained 3-0 at halftime.
The rain arrived right on the halftime whistle, so it was a surprise that both teams stayed out on the pitch, but at least it meant we were back underway by 14.50. Rottingdean only had the bare eleven players at kick off, with one substitute arriving late in the first half and a second one after we’d played an hour, by which time it was 5-0 to the hosts, with a long range shot followed in after a fumble by the ‘keeper making it four and a deflected effort adding to the tally just minutes later. Rottingdean had a man sent off with fifteen minutes left, picking up a second yellow card, before another deflection saw Lancing make it 6-0 with seven minutes left.
The rain got worse as the game wore on and it was pretty gloomy by the end of the match, where despite there being floodlights, they remained unused. Plenty of spray and standing water on the journey back up the M23/A23. Luckily for me, the last remaining ground I’ve yet to visit in this league, also hosts the matches of second in the league table T.M.G. so I’ll look to do them at home, rather than trust St. Marys again, especially as a result of 0-3 has now appeared on F.A. Fulltime for today’s game! It was obviously played elsewhere.
