The first games of 2023 and myself, Gaz and Steve decided we were going to attempt an audacious double on Bank Holiday Monday. I had already planned on Lancing vs Littlehampton with a 1pm ko when Gaz mentioned about adding another one in before.
East Preston vs Arundel was mentioned but travel time was key so we settled on Steyning Town vs Horsham YMCA, having not yet been over to the Birchwood Stadium this season timing was just right.
Town are on the edge of the title and play-off race having started well, stuttered a little but found form again recently while YMCA are firmly in the middle unlikely to trouble either end of the table.
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The sun actually made an appearance after the wet weekend and the ground was pretty much bathed in sunshine, a fair few groundhoppers in attendance as well also on the first leg of double header’s with some heading down the road to Lancing as well.
It was the visitors who opened the scoring after just three minutes, a powerful strike from Jamie Rice gave Town keeper Lucas Szendela-Koetzke no chance. Both sides then traded yellow cards after a couple of disagreements inside the YMCA six yard box, two each dished out by the match referee.
The hosts however had the attacking impetus moving forward from that point, Horsham struggling to get some free flowing football going to add to their goal a host of corners for the home side but not fashioning any clear cut chances.
It was however from one of those corners Steyning equalised just after the half hour mark, centre half Jack Potten peeling away to the back post and heading home to level the scores.
Just as the sides looked to be going in at half time level, the home side took the lead. Jack Barnes was given time outside the box to tee up a shot and although hit well, Aaron Jeal seemed to have it covered before the ball squirmed under his body and into the net.
I imagine the half time team talk for the visitors was to at least keep it tight for the first ten minutes or so of the second half, definitely not out of the game but not wanting to be out of sight.
However, within four minutes of the re-start Steyning were further in front, the liveware Dom Johnson-Fisher cutting inside from the left hand side and firing a shot past Jeal into the top corner to give the hosts some daylight between them and their visitors.
As we were conscious of the time and the second game, we made an exit with around 20 minutes to go, safe in our knowledge that there wasn’t going to be a comeback of any sort from the visitors despite using their substitutions to try and make a difference before we left, but as confirmed to me by @NonLgeProgs it was still 3-1 in stoppage time and indeed finished that way as the home side took the points to keep themselves close to those above them.
A good sized attendance of 137 were treated to a few goals and I think YMCA will be disappointed they didn’t build on the early strike, Steyning certainly grew into the game and as so often can be the case goals either side of the half time interval can be very crucial as proved here.
Never a shortage of people to see when you arrive at any game these days and this one was no different, Stuart Robinson (@xxrobbo) father of former EP and current Town centre half Charlie, Jazz Rance who I’m sure is itching to get back onto the field at some stage, Peter Parry (@PeterParry2) from the @TheNLChronicles and a chance meeting with Southend Utd fan @Lord_Football, that’s again the lovely side of Twitter and non-league football.
So, that’s game number one down, onto Lancing vs Littlehampton Town for your next blog to come………
