Lewes Mens 5s beat Chichester Mens 5s 3-1

LEAGUE: Sussex Div 4
HOME TEAM: Lewes Men's 5s 3 (Forster 2, Kingsbury)
AWAY TEAM: Chichester Mens 5's 1

The early 10:15 start on Saturday saw both 5th XI teams still warming up at 9:55.........with a civilised coffee in the clubhouse and an inter team chat on the prospect of Frittatas or Roast Beef for brunch!

With the game in progress it was Lewes who started quicker with Charlie Kingsbury driving down the right wing, along the baseline and into the D. His neat slip to the P spot, on this occasion, was cleared to the edge of the circle and picked up by Alan Forster who immediately hammered the ball back at goal. A defender's touch wrong-footed the Chi keeper and Lewes had their first goal on the board.

Lewes dominated the first period with excellent debuts from Phil Brown and Dylan Williams in the centre of the pitch. The defence of Richard Daniel, Toby Rolph, Mark Pearson and James Hall repelled each Chichester attack and defended well - a string of penalty corners commanded by Lions' keeper Stan Hughes in only his second adult game. Whilst a number of chances were missed in front of goal, the home side entered the break 1-0 up.

As is often the case, the opposition started the 2nd half on the attack, promptly winning and converting a penalty corner. The ball moved around the circle like a pin ball and was eventually converted with a reverse tomahawk that found it's way through a crowd to strike the back board.

1-1 would not be accepted by the 'men in green' who piled on the pressure in response and played some very nice passing hockey. With 13 minutes to go Charlie Kingsbury drove down the right wing again, slipped the ball to Dax Debice who skipped into the D and passed to Steve Fuller who drew the keeper and slipped the ball to Alan Forster waiting for a tap-in at the post to secure his brace.

Lewes finished off the visitors 3 minutes later when James Hall overturned a Chichester attack and sent the ball down the right channel to Charlie Kingsbury who cut inside and finished a fine individual jinking run into the circle with a cheeky reverse stick past the Chichester goalkeeper.

A good win for the unbeaten 5s who travel to Brighton next Saturday.

Match Report: Malcolm Wain