Mid Sussex League
Division 2 North
Saturday 6th December 2025
Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.01
Ansty 1 Old Oxted Town 2, attendance 17
13’ 1-0
15’ 1-1
38’ 1-2
@ St. Paul’s Catholic College, 3G Pitch
Jane Murray Way
Abbotsford
Burgess Hill
RH15 8GA
No Admission or Programme.
It was a day when the option of going a game on grass was very risky. I’d intended heading for East Anglia, with my preferred game being at Mutford & Wrentham, but with the pitch inspection not taking place until 11.00, it would be too late for me to then get there for the 13.30 kick off. News came through about 11.10 that it was going ahead, but by then I’d resigned myself to staying more local and played it safe with the 3G option.
Ansty play at St. Paul’s Catholic College, on the north-west edge of Burgess Hill. It’s a cage set up, with no designated spectator area, but no problem watching from inside the fence, with all spectators and both ‘benches’ using just the near side. Rather annoyingly, there were a couple of overhead wires, which hold the dividing curtains for the small sized pitches, which the ball hit at least half a dozen times during the game. There are no other facilities here, although toilets may have been available inside the changing room building, which was on the far side of some concrete tennis courts that backed onto the cage.
The match was 9th (out of 11) versus 1st, with Old Oxted Town leading second in the table Wakehams Green by five points, as well as having a game in hand, having won eight of their nine games played so far. Ansty had just one win and one draw from their seven games played, with the reverse fixture having been won 1-0 by Old Oxted, when they met at the start of last month.
It was a tight game today too. Old Oxted had an early chance cleared off the line, after a fumble by the home ‘keeper, but it was Ansty who opened the scoring after thirteen minutes, breaking quickly from defence before finishing with an angled shot into the far corner. Within two minutes, a close range finish saw the visitors draw level, which was the 25,000th goal that’s been scored at matches I’ve attended. Seven minutes before halftime they edged in front, when a corner from the left was headed back across the six yard box and met with another header from six yards that gave the ‘keeper no chance. They just couldn’t find the killer third goal and had Ansty not hit the post early in the second half, as well as having a goal ruled out for a foul on the ‘keeper from an in swinging corner, then we might have had a different outcome, but it would have been harsh on the visitors, as they were the better team for the majority of the match.
Apart from a couple of very brief (1-2 minutes) spells when it threatened to rain, it remained dry for a change. It did go gloomy towards the end of the game, with the floodlights coming on as we entered the last 15 minutes and with everyone having stayed out on the pitch at halftime, we were done and dusted for 15.43. Just three more grounds required in this league now, with one of those shared by a team from the West Sussex League.
