March 2002 News

As everyone predicted, the firsts were knocked out of the Sussex County Cup by a Brighton & Hove Albion side featuring seven faces from their recent Premier Division win over Charlton Athletic, but they did enough to scare the living daylights out of the Premier League side along the way. The pre-match talk about taking the game to them and not letting them settle was blown out of the water by Helen Whitton as we conceded the fastest goal in our history after only 30 seconds, her opportunistic 35-yarder curling over Woody into the far corner. Rather than heads dropping, though, this spurred us into action and we then enjoyed a good 10-minute spell, with both TC and Cha forcing saves from Lisa Murray, but the balance of play soon shifted back and much of the first half saw Brighton camped in our half as we kept giving away possession with hacked clearances and rushed passes. However, one of the few quality moves we produced saw TC equalise on the half hour, a long ball over the top was missed by the covering defender and she raced clear to tuck away one of her trademark finishes. Even though the goal was totally against the run of play, it rocked Brighton out of their rhythm and the game evened up towards half time.

We had had the advantage of the slope on the Ringmer pitch in the first half, but if anything our second half play was of a much higher standard and we matched them throughout the rest of the game. Unluckily, we went behind again on 55 minutes to a quality chip over Woody which everyone thought was over the bar until it dipped just under, but we weren't finished yet! After a crude challange on Kerry which saw Kerry Dawkins rightly booked, we produced a quality move to equal anything Brighton produced on the night, TC's cross being hammered in by Nat Bungay on the volley for her first goal of the season. Game on again! Brighton's superior fitness and experience finally told with twenty minutes left as they capitalised on a defensive mix-up, Kirsty initially clearing off the line but straight to another Brighton player following in who slotted coolly past her. Not a single Crowborough head went down, though, and we spent the remainder of the game pressing for the equaliser, and on many occasions before the end Brighton were forced into desperately hacking the ball away just as we had done in the first half. Both Nat and Rachael can count themselves unlucky not to have connected with good chances to put away our third goal but in the end it was not to be.

The firsts suffered their first defeat since November, going down 2-1 after taking the lead through Rachael on the half hour. We'd started like a house on fire, dominating the first ten minutes totally, but then Woking gradually got into the game and the goal looked like it had come at just the right time. However, we then looked even more off the pace and they equalised within 5 minutes, dreadful marking allowing Vinny Clifford a shot which seemed to trundle goalwards in slow motion. The second half continued in much the same vein, and when Emma Constable was left in acres of space outside the penalty area which beat Woody with a sublime chip. only with 20 minutes to go did we collectively wake up, and we spent the majority of this time in their third. The best chances fell to TC who broke through but hit her shot over the bar, Michelle who hit the bar with a 20-yard free kick and Ellie who screwed the ball the wrong side of the post twice from close range. Let's hope we can learn from this and get revenge in next week's Cup game there.

The 2nds warmed up for their County Trophy semi final with a 6-1 friendly win over one of the other semi-finalists, Crawley Down. Scorers were Kim, Sarah (2) and Nat Waller (3). The final quarter of an hour when Terri brought herself on were anything but friendly, though, and one has to wonder what the ref was doing after one of the Crawley Down players slapped Terri around the face. Not really the way to make friends and influence people - don't think we'll bother next time.