Not often there is an opportunity to fit two games into one day, normally that’s reserved for Bank Holidays. Being as I was off on holiday on Tuesday this week, Saturday fitted nicely to make two in a day and missing off the midweek normality.
With Jersey Bulls and Guernsey frequenting divisions where they’ve got a lot of trips to Sussex an early kick off is the norm to allow them time to return to the Channel Islands and vice versa with clubs visiting them.
The Bulls were in the county to face as resurgent Hastings Utd side, in good form since the appointment of Dave Altendorff. With a 12.45pm kick off it meant a slight mad dash back down the A259 to catch Bexhill Utd taking on promotion hopefuls Steyning Town on the way back home, rude not to really!
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Jersey are at Step 4 for the first time in their history, Hastings relegated back to this level after a torrid season last year. A poor start this campaign saw Lee Carey dismissed a few weeks ago and under Altendorff so far they’ve collected eight points from four games, a marked improvement but the Bulls would provide a stern test.
A cold lunchtime, grey and dismal, the kind of afternoon expected these days as we head towards the winter period in England. The home side made the most of some windy conditions, causing a bit of havoc from set pieces and it was from one of those they opened the scoring.
A corner not dealt with by the Bulls defence saw a scrappy phase of play of a couple of goal line clearances but the final one slammed home by centre half Eugene Asike from a couple of yards out.
Bulls looked very good going forward, but the final third saw a lack of creativity and when they did get some joy the ball flashed across the penalty area with no end product, the U’s in front at half time.
The second half was very much a backs to the wall performance. Jersey controlled the possession throughout, winning all the midfield second balls and forcing Hastings into channel balls to chase to clear their lines. However, Asike and his centre half partner Sam Pidgeon stood firm despite one or two hairy moments for a clean sheet and three more valuable points which after the afternoon’s results was more vital than possibly realised at the time.
The mad dash down the A259 meant missing the first ten minutes at The Polegrove but with it not much action. Being so close to the actual seafront does cause a lot of not so pleasant weather to capture the ground and the wind here was far worse than on the hill in Hastings.
It didn’t create much for a good spectacle across the 90 minutes, mistakes where the ball didn’t carry almost let in Steyning a couple of times in the latter stages of the first half but those chances went begging for a blank half time scoreline.
The rain came in at the break and stayed for the rest of the game, that combined with the wind was like three teams playing instead of two! We did finally get a goal with 20 minutes to play, substitute Evan Hoarty finishing off a fine move with the evergreen Joe Benn doubling the lead around ten minutes later.
Bexhill did manage to scramble one home in stoppage time but too little too late for mounting a comeback, Steyning keep as much pressure as they can on Haywards Heath Town at the top of the Southern Combination Premier Division.
Great to catch up with Billy Wood, Brad Barry and Dave Altendorff at Hastings before kick-off, they feel something is beginning to happen there and it’s a club where support is big for the level and one higher.
At Bexhill Utd, Geoff Martin has been providing me with some great content for the SNLF (Sussex Non League Football) website so good to see him and chat about local football, whilst also meeting the programme editor Kieran Mahon.
