Bexhill maintain top form

The leaders claimed their seventh consecutive league win with a 4-1 defeat of visiting Rustington Sports.

"It was a very good result," said manager Bill Trivett. "They were a good side and it was a really tough game. They've strengthened since we last met them (United lost 2-1 in West Sussex in their second match of the campaign) and they gave us a real run for our money."

The one small downside for United was the concession of their first league goal from open play in 550 minutes. And a hotly disputed one it was too that gave Rustington a 10th minute lead.

"It was two yards offside," said an indignant Trivett. "The linesman flagged for it, but the ref over-ruled him."

It mattered not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but only after they "were made to work for everything" by a team bolstered by recent acquisitions.

It took a fine five man move for United to breach the away backline for the 20th minute leveller, Dave Carey slotting home his 15th league goal of the season following significant contributions from Mark Funnell and Darren Witham.

Perhaps the turning point of the game came five minutes prior to half time when Witham converted a penalty after Funnell had been pulled back. Just as crucially, Sports were reduced to 10 men when one particular player took his protests too far.

"The second goal just before half time was the key," Trivett added. "We started to feel then that we were in the driving seat. The sending-off obviously helped us a bit, but we weren't completely dominating the game even after that."

They were on the scoresheet, though, because Funnell's 57th minute third and the 63rd minute fourth and first for the front side for Barry Leete, who supplied the third, wrapped up the win.