Steyning turn out Whyteleafe in FA Vase – Worthing sink Sudbury – Wick suffer Bentley blow

Steyning Town 4 AFC Whyteleafe 2

FA Vase 2nd qualifying round

by Richard Woodbridge

Steyning Town’s distant dreams of Wembley remain alive after a well-deserved victory over Whyteleafe.

Charlie Meehan was causing problems and won a corner which the keeper made a hash of- and Harry Shooman pounced for his sixth goal of the season.Great work from Meehan down the right, linking with Ryan Hallett, ended with a low cross that Shooman moved on to Joe Radley-Martin and he made no mistake.

Shortly before half-time Lloyd Francis was there to make it three from just inside the penalty area.

Town had to wait until the 70th minute for the fourth goal as Meehan broke down the right cutting in on the keeper, playing a ‘clever’ one two off the keeper, and finishing neatly for his 10th of the season.Whyteleafe pulled one back in the 78th minute, then added another from a penalty.

All in all it was a very pleasing 90 minutes for Steyning and in the first round proper they have been drawn at home again – against Reading City of the Combined Counties League. It will be played on October 21.

Wick 1 Haywards Heath 3

Peter Bentley Cup

Josh Irish’s 11th goal of the season was not enough to prevent ten-man Wick from being knocked out of a second cup competition in a month by Haywards Heath.

Both sides used the Peter Bentley Cup tie to give youngsters experience with the Dragons fielding eight players from their Under-23 and Under-18 ranks in an entertaining match.

Irish opened the scoring with his first goal at Crabtree Park this term with a superb 16th-minute finish after being released by fellow striker Dave Crouch, who was swiftly denied a second for the Division One club when Bluebells goalkeeper Alfie Jones saved his sweetly struck volley.

Clinical strikes from Hayden Skerry either side of the break and Emmanuel Abidiore’s low drive sealed victory for the visitors, who sent Wick crashing out of the FA Vase last month, before Ryan Barratt was sent off for a mistimed challenge.

Worthing FC Women earned an impressive victory over fellow newbies AFC Sudbury to rise to third in the National League Division 1 SE table, a mere two points off the top. An opening goal from Gemma Worsfold, two from Sammy Quayle plus one each from from Danielle Rowe and Katie Cooper saw a final result of 5-0.

Report by Gareth Nicholas:

Following last week’s wet and windy win at QPR, a sun-soaked Sussex Transport Community Stadium saw Emma Blakely in for Chloe Winchester as the only change to the team which had come from behind to take the points in North West London.

The hosts attacked their opponents from the off, with Dani Rowe robbing Leonnie Bezant just outside the area and shooting narrowly over the target, after only three minutes.

Less than sixty seconds later Rowe set up Becki Bath; her centre circle pass controlled first time by the inform centre-forward but Yellows’ goalkeeper Amelia Carter saved her shot and quickly pounced on the rebound.

A theme of red hot strikers was off and running and duly continued thanks to Sammy Quayle seizing on Captain Ronni Harrison’s heavy touch, as she attempted to pass back to Carter and leaving our own Skipper Gemma Worsfold with an open invitation from five yards, that led to the game swinging decisively in the homesters’ favour.

Despite finding themselves trailing early on, Sudbury responded rapidly via Player-of-the-Match Holly Kennard, whose deflected byline cross was helped on by Evie Creaton for Phoebe Guiver to lift over the top, under pressure from Rowe.

Creator Creaton then took down Sophie Jeffery’s long ball before being met by Lauren Dolbear, as the Red’s ‘keeper sensed the danger. Although it still needed the wherewithal of Blakely to block the follow-up on the six yard line.

Midway through the opening period, Bezant inadvertently played in Quayle who quickly picked out Worsfold, only for the defender to make a fine recovery and clear off the goal line.

An offside flag had already ruled out a slightly earlier effort by our number ten, following her swivel and shot on a Bath “assist.”

Home fans didn’t have much longer to wait for a second strike though and it emanated from an inch-perfect through ball from Katie Young, resulting in Quayle surging past Aliyat Lambe, prior to burying a bullet beyond Carter and edging ahead of teammate Bath in the divisional goalscoring charts.

Approaching the interval, the ever-dangerous Kennard weaved some more magic along the byline although, ultimately, just out of the reach of an incoming Creaton on this occasion.

The Suffolk side almost halved the deficit in added time too, when Guiver gave substitute Maisie Goodwin an opportunity that grazed the outside of the base of the post, much to the relief of custodian Dolbear.

Two further changes by the guests during the interval failed to stop the momentum, with Bath threading a delightful through ball to Katie Cooper, who, making full use of the time and space afforded to her, showed tremendous composure in advancing and producing an emphatic finish to give custodian Carter no chance, with forty-nine on the clock.

An hour into proceedings, Kennard upended Rowe not far from the left-hand corner flag and was instantly punished, courtesy of Dani delivering a dead ball that Carter could only palm onto the back of Young and into the back of the net. Katie Y making sure at the second attempt, although the ball had already crossed the line before her initial contact.

A double swap saw Winchester and Becs Bell join the action and both made an instant impression.

Firstly, Chloe drove forward on the right, won a fifty-fifty against Lambe and slipped in Bath for an attempt she dragged a fraction wide.

Then, Becs’ unfortunate miscue eventually landed at the feet of Creaton, who’s outstretched leg also diverted the danger a tad the wrong side of the upright.

Normal service soon resumed for our ‘Speed Queen’ though, as she raced clear on the left wing and soon spotted Quayle further inside. Carter able to calmly claim Sammy’s shot on the turn this time.

Not that Quayle could be kept quiet for long; reacting sharply to Carter’s attempt at playing out from the back and nipping in ahead of replacement Learna Daniels, to lob the netminder, at least twenty yards out.

Niamh Andersson had only been on the pitch ten minutes when she had two chances in around one.

In a counter-attack commencing due to a conceding of possession by Amber Provan in the ‘d,’ Quayle sent Bell scampering along the right flank, where, in the blink of an eye up the other end, her deep cross found Andersson unmarked but a swerving shot swayed away from goal.

Niamh is no slouch herself and put on her own afterburners to leave sub Chloe Brame choking on smoke, before cutting in off the left wing and finally firing oh-so-close to rounding off a brilliant passage of play she had started and very nearly completed.

ROUND-UP

Lancing and Littlehampton Town look to ick-start their league campaigns on Saturday when they meet at Culver Road.

Both have played only three Isthmian south east games so far – with both the Lancers and the Marigolds registering just one win apiece so far.

A number of games have been called off because they have been in FA Cup or FA Trophy action or their scheduled opponents have been in knockout action.

Saturday’s derby gives both teams a chance to try to get some momentum going at the start of a much busier run of league outings.

Lancing were knocked out of the FA Trophy in a 6-2 defeat at Ascot United on Saturday, with Lucas Franzen-Jones scoring both their goals, one in each half.

And on Tuesday night they suffered another heavy knockout defeat when they lost 5-1 at home to Chichester City in the Velocity Trophy.

Harry Heath scored their consolation goal late in proceedings.

Steyning Town are through to the third round of the Peter Bentley Cup thanks to a 5-1 win at home to Lingfield.

Jack Barnes, Rob Clarke, Charlie Meehan and Sam Remfry were all on target.

In the Southern Combination premier, Shoreham’s tough start continued when they lost 4-0 at Pagham.

The Musselmen will look for their first win when they host Saltdean on Saturday.