Mid Sussex League

Montgomery Cup 2nd Round

Saturday 21st September 2019

Kick Off 16.00 Actual 16.03

Nutley 2 Eastbourne Rangers 4, attendance 27

3’ 0-1

15’ 0-2

33’ 0-3

52’ 0-4

54’ 1-4

64’ 2-4

@ Fords Green

Nutley

TN22 3LJ

No Admission or Programme.

The drive from Ardingly saw me arrive twenty minutes before the scheduled kick off. It is always a pleasing sight when you are aiming for a double, to see the teams warming up on the pitch when you arrive, as there is always a possibility that they may have kicked off early if the earlier scheduled match at the ground hasn’t taken place for some reason.

Nutley are second from bottom in the league table of the Championship (level 2 of the league) having taken one point from their first four matches. Eastbourne Rangers are in the Premier Division, sitting third from bottom, also having just a single point, but from five games.

It was evident from the start that Eastbourne Rangers were from a higher division. They were ahead after just three minutes and by halftime it was 0-3 and they were coasting. A defender diverted a cross into his own net to make it 0-4 in favour of the visitors and that looked to be it. Nutley did reduce the arrears within two minutes, heading in from a corner, before a fine solo run and finish from midfield saw it pulled back to 2-4 with twenty five minutes left. Nutley never looked like scoring again though, even when Eastbourne Rangers had a player sin binned for the last ten minutes of the match.