Little Common score 10 in two games – Bexhill win at YMCA

Little Common 8 Roffey 2

SCFL premier

Little Common recorded their fifth consecutive home win with a comfortable 8-2 victory over Roffey on Saturday.

Player-manager Russell Eldridge once again had a full squad to choose from and he and Louis Walker made way for Adam Smith and James Miriam-Batchelor in the starting line-up.

Common certainly didn’t have everything their own way and it was the visitors who started the brighter of the two teams and deservedly took the lead with ten minutes on the clock, a delivery into the box found its way to Jordan Maher at the back post and after cutting inside he fired a shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Common slowly began to get a foothold on the game and the equaliser arrived in the 21st minute, a pinpoint pass from keeper Matt Cruttwell found Freddie Warren who raced through on goal and drilled a shot across the keeper into the far corner of the net. Four minutes later and Common were in front, a Sam Cruttwell free kick being flicked in at the far post by Lewis Hole.

The visitors’ afternoon became a lot more difficult after half an hour when Cruttwell was bundled over in the box leading to a second yellow card and Roffey being reduced to ten men – Cruttwell picked himself up and dispatched the resultant penalty.

The goal of the game came on the stroke of half-time and it was Cruttwell once again, firing home an unstoppable free kick to give Common a 4-1 lead.

Man of the match Cruttwell took just two minutes of the second half to complete his hat-trick, curling an effort into the corner of the net from just inside the area. It was Hole who added the sixth after an hour, firing in from close range following Sam Ellis’ cutback.

Hole saw two headers saved by the keeper as he tried to complete his hattrick and Walker had an effort saved by the keeper’s leg. Lewis Parsons grabbed the seventh goal, bundling in Cruttwell cross at the far post before Jamie Crone completed the scoring for Common with a neat first time finish at the back post following a cross into the area.

It was the visitors who rounded off the scoring when Maher added his second with a curled effort into the top corner of the net from the edge of the area.

Horsham YMCA 1 Bexhill United 3

SCFL premier

Jack Shonk opened the scoring for the Pirates just before half-time with a cracking left foot strike into the top corner. Shonk was again on hand in the 58th minute to get the final touch on a Tom Vickers free kick to roll the ball past Horsham YMCA goalkeeper Aaron Jeal.

Horsham got handed a lifeline from the penalty spot to make it 1-2 in the 82nd minute before a brilliant solo effort from James Stone with five minutes remaining wrapped up a deserved victory for the away side.

Bexhill boss Ryan Light said: “I thought it was really professional performance at what is always a tough place to visit. We certainly went up a gear from recent weeks. I thought we worked extremely hard and fully deserved the win.

“We now look forward to Saturday when high flying Crawley Down Gatwick visit us at The Polegrove, they’re currently going really well in the league but I feel the time has come now where we need to start making a dent in the sides at the top of the table when we play them.”

Little Common 2 Steyning 0

SCFL premier

A goal after 34 seconds from Ollie Weeks set Little Common on their way to a 2-0 midweek win over Steyning Town.

The young full-back’s marauding run saw him beat two defenders before firing an effort into the bottom corner of the net without even a minute on the clock. Common had chances to extend their lead with Sam Cruttwell seeing an effort saved by the visiting keeper and James Miriam-Batchelor firing over the bar following a neat pull back from Weeks.

The visitors had an effort drift wide of the post but it was Common who went into the interval feeling that they should have been further ahead. The visitors had two chances to equalise early in the second half but first saw an effort fired wide of the post with just Cruttwell to beat before the Common keeper made a smart save from a one-on-one situation.

Despite a spell of pressure from the visitors the Commoners defended well and sealed the points in the 80th minute when Sam Ellis’ cutback found Jamie Bunn and despite his first effort being blocked, he fired the rebound into the roof of the net to send the home crowd wild. The result ensured that Common made it six points in four days and extended their unbeaten home league record to eight games.

Common boss Russell Eldridge said: “It's a been great week picking up 6 points, scoring 10 goals and making it 3 wins on the bounce. The whole group has been fantastic.

"We started slowly against Roffey and fell behind, once we settled and control the tempo of the game there was only going to be one outcome. We once again scored four goals in the first half for the second consecutive match. At half time we spoke about the hunger and desire to score more and we did that we the goals getting shared around as well as some fantastic individual and team goals.

“We made the perfect start on Tuesday scoring inside the first minute to take the lead. On another day we would have extended our lead as we missed two great opportunities which would have closed the game out.

"The second half was a bit more frantic at times and Steyning missed a couple of a good chances but we managed to seal the win with a second goal. We have hardworking and resilient nature about us at the moment and group are performing well both individually and collectively, we can't wait for the next game as we know what we're capable of.”