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A lot of my time watching games this season has been taken up by Sussex teams but with a couple of months left in the season there is still time to get around and see a few more away from the residing county.
Sussex teams however are producing some fantastic football and teams that should be in contention for titles and play-off’s by the time April rolls around. Of course there are some who have work to do to avoid relegation and time is fast running out.
The clash for me at the weekend pitted two Sussex sides against each other in the Isthmian South East Division, both at opposite ends of the table and both in need of the points for differing reasons.
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It’s been a baptism of fire for Steyning Town this season, their first time ever at Step 4 level. Winners of the Southern Combination last year, they’ve struggled to adapt to the division after losing their management team over the summer and various players through the course of the campaign, now they face a race against time to avoid an instant return.
Their visitors were Burgess Hill Town, nicely ensconced in the play off places and way out in front of any other Sussex side in the division. Having assembled a side with players well versed to levels above in some respects, the Hillians will be looking to maintain their form and scope out potential opponents over the coming weeks.
A rare appearance from the sun covered most of the afternoon although still feeling cold, the visitors were out the blocks quickly not giving the Barrowmen any time to settle into a rhythm.
It did take until the 18th minute for the Hillians to turn their possession into the opening goal, a deflected ball finding it’s way to Brannon O’Neil who slotted the ball home.
The lead was doubled eight minutes later, Barrowmen keeper Nathan Stromberg-Clarke couldn’t keep hold of a high hanging ball leaving Chris Whelpdale with a simple tap in.
Ollie Rawlins cut an isolated figure up front for the home side, a lack of forward progress from Steyning that when it did happen failed to materialise into anything.
The Barrowmen did perk up in the second half and certainly gave it a bit more of a go running at the Hillians, the combination of that and some wayward shooting from the visitors kept the scoreline at 0-2.
The hosts certainly had to take some risks to try and get back into the game, leaving plenty of space for the visitors to take advantage. Had they been able to create a few half chances at least, the result could have panned out a little different.
Burgess Hill did add another goal in the final minute, Whelpdale setting up Bobby Price to fire home and another three points added to the tally.
The Hillians were very slick all over the pitch, easy to see why they’ve achieved their league position so far, pretty impressive movement and one touch football at times.
Chris Whelpdale certainly shouldn’t be at this level, far too good and Steyning struggled all afternoon to pick him up wherever he roamed on the pitch.
Whilst they allowed the centre halves to have the ball around their penalty area, there wasn’t enough press on them as they moved towards the Steyning half.
The Barrowmen will certainly have games left in the last eight weeks they will expect to get their points from whilst the Hillians are on a run of one defeat in 24 league matches, unbeaten in 14 away games. A superb crowd of almost 300 no doubt boosted by the lack of Step 5 games taking place locally.
Great to see Mike Hamm before the game, in at Steyning as Assistant Manager and someone I’ve known for a good few years. Currently doing more of his coaching badges for a future in the game, they’ve certainly tightened up a bit since his arrival, times will tell if the change and influx of players had the matches to survive the drop.
