Steyning, Wick and Worthing Women in winning form

Saltdean 0 Steyning 6

SCFL premier

It’s eight wins in a row, 31 goals scored, seven conceded for Steyning Town as the feelgood factor grows at The Shooting Field.

They’re keeping their feet on the ground but competition for places is high and there is a good buzz in and around the team as they rise to fourth in the SCFL premier table.

It was ultimately a very comfortable win at Saltdean; however Steyning were very sloppy in the first ten minutes and were indebted to Lucas in goal to not find themselves one, two or three goals adrift.

After that it was pretty much one-way traffic.

Wideman Bradley and Johnson-Fisher were causing havoc to the full-backs all afternoon and Town were finding pockets of space all over the place in the final third.

The scoring got under way as centre back Da Costa bundled home on 19 minutes as a Langford free kick was spilled by James in the Saltdean goal.

Soon after Bradley made it two, finishing after a mazy Johnson-Fisher run.

Saltdean were starting to lose their discipline and the first of two visits to the sin bin came shortly before half time.

The second half was a few minutes old when Da Costa volleyed home a second from close range after a good free kick from Barnes.

Langford bundled home a fourth after rounding the keeper and the Saltdean skipper Paul was sinned binned for dissent towards the officials.

On 60 minutes Johnson-Fisher got in on the act with a fine solo goal, turning three defenders inside out and firing home low. He was withdrawn from the action after being on the end of some poor tackles as the defence could not cope with his speed and skill.

The final goal came on 65 minutes as Landford finished off a flowing move with a low strike from 18 yards to make it ten goals in six games.

There was a red card for a second yellow late on for Saltdean sub Blair, and Da Costa missed a point blank header and a great chance for a centre back’s hat-trick.

MoM: Jack Barnes.

- RICHARD WOODBRIDGE

East Grinstead 2 Lancing 0

Isthmian South East

A crowd of 237 did not exactly witness a game of high quality as the Wasps and Lancers were guilty of misplaced passes and poor control.

Lancing suffered an early setback when, with four minutes on the clock, Alieu Secka took a tumble - losing his balance when moving back towards his goal line.

It gave former Lancing forward Matt Daniel the simple task of guiding the ball over the prone keeper into the unguarded net.

Lancing were able to make promising forays into the opposition final third but final passes were going astray. Their first effort on target came from Reece Hallard on the 20-minute mark but, although well struck it was straight at keeper Matte Pierson.

Lancing had their moments in attack while at the other end, the centre back pairing of Tom Butler and Reuben Livesey-Austin were coping well.

The Wasps did not look like increasing their lead, their few efforts on goal and crosses being held by Secka.

Faris Khallouqi came on for the second half. Lancing started promisingly with Tyrone Madhani and Billy Fuller combining well on the right before a cross finished in no man’s land.

Lancing pressed for an equaliser but it would not come.

The Wasps had the final word, four minutes into added time. Jake LeGrange committed a foul just outside the box earning a caution.

The defensive wall lined up but Andrew Briggs spotted anopening and drove in off a post.

- DAVE WILMOTT

Wick 4 Oakwood 2

SCFL Division 1

James Thurgar bagged an impressive double as Wick beat Oakwood for the second time in three weeks at Crabtree Park.

The Dragons forward also scored twice the previous Saturday in a 3-1 win at his former club Worthing United and has now found the net on seven occasions this season.

Successive league wins have righted the ship after Wick’s September setbacks and they are now third in the table just three points behind leaders Epsom & Ewell.

Zac Harris finished clinically at the start of the second half and Sam Conolly supplied a stunning finish as the Dragons piled on the heat in 17 fiery minutes after the restart to take a 4-1 lead.

But Oakwood, much improved since their 3-1 RUR Cup defeat on the south coast at the end of last month, clawed their way back into contention and it took a brilliant save from Keelan Belcher to prevent the visitors getting back in the match.

The game, delayed for 30 minutes by traffic congestion on the surrounding roads, ended with Johan van Driel’s scorching free-kick being tipped behind at full stretch by Oaks goalkeeper Andrew Greaves.

“It was a scrappy affair and we should have finished it off at 4-1,” said assistant coach Max Burton. “But we allowed them back into it and it would have been squeaky bum time if Keelan hadn’t rescued us.

“Thurgs was brilliant and so was Sam Conolly, his finish could well be goal of the season.”

Crawley Down Gatwick 0 Wick 2

Sussex Senior Cup

Wick turned in their best performance of the season to cause an upset by knocking SCFL premier leaders Crawley Down Gatwick out of the Senior Cup.

James Thurgar scored his fifth goal in four matches when he ran onto a Johan van Driel pass to round the home goalkeeper and roll the ball into the empty net in the 17th minute.

Wick captain van Driel then whipped in a deep free-kick just before the half-hour and Harry Williams timed his run perfectly to double the lead with a firm header.

The Dragons, third in Division One, defended stoutly throughout and Oli Chick was unfortunate not to increase the lead when his ferocious volley was deflected behind.

”‘It was a tremendous display by the whole team,” said Wick manager Lee Baldwin. “We thoroughly deserved to take such a big scalp."

A Harry Heath hat-trick was the highlight as Shoreham beat Billingshurst 8-2 in SCFL division one. Arundel won 3-1 at Forest Row while Worthing Utd drew 2-2 at Chessington. East Preston lost 2-1 at Montpelier Villa

Worthing Women 5 Saltdean 0

London and South East premier

Four different goalscorers and five goals made it six wins out of six in all competitions as the Reds put Saltdean to the sword at Hill Park.

It took Ella Newman a mere five minutes to open the scoring, driving past multiple Saltdean players to find the net.

Less than ten minutes later, Rebecca Bell got her head to Georgia Tibble’s right-sided flag-kick to nod home number two, followed by Sophie Humphrey scoring the third before half time.

A good break upfield led to Saltdean captain Georgia Bridges forcing a fine save out of Lauren Dolbear, but the second half saw a further goal from Humphrey, then the fifth and final from Georgia Tibble finished things off.

Yapton Res 2 Ferring Res 1

West Sussex League Div 3S

It was touch and go for Yapton in an evenly-contested match until five minutes from time when Tom Legge provided the through pass for Dan Gill to fire the winner.

In the first half Yapton's Connor Jones beat two opponents and struck a post.

It was Gill who provided the pass for Legge to give Yapton the lead on the hour.

After Ferring had equalised, their goalkeeper made several fine saves before Gill broke the deadlock.