Lewes Mens 5s put 5 past Southwick Mens 3s

FIXTURE: Sussex Div 4
HOME TEAM: Lewes Men's 5s 5 (Forster 3, Rolph, Brown)
AWAY TEAM: Southwick Men's 3s 0 - Another clean sheet for Jon Cornish.

On Saturday, Lewes Men's 5s welcomed Southwick 3s to the Southdown pitch that had taken until 3pm to properly thaw.

The men in green also took a while to get warmed up with Steve Fuller denied twice by the Southwick goalkeeper and the Lewes Skipper also denied twice by his own feet, nothing changes! With chances missed it was Toby Rolph who finally put Lewes in front after 22 minutes converting the last of three penalty corners with a trademark backboard-breaking strike from the top of the D.

Rolph was involved again just 3 minutes later dribbling unchallenged from defence to the opposition's 23m line where he passed to Phil Brown (a man on a mission) whose strike from the edge of the D was a 'proper worldy' billowing the top corner of the net............and the crowd went wild.

At 2-0 up, the Lewes half-time talk centred on keeping the ball and remaining 'hard to beat', however as the 2nd half started it was Southwick who upped their game entering the Lewes 23 time and again only to be thwarted by the Lewes 'wall' of Rolph, David Mansell, Tim Bullen, Simon (everywhere) Murray and James Hall.

After 18 minutes Lewes found their mojo again when Steve Fuller received the ball on the Southwick 23m line and sent a superb through-ball in to Alan Forster who pushed it 1st time past the advancing goalkeeper.

Five minutes later and Forster's second finished an excellent passing move started by Dave Cooke with a pass from the centre spot to Malcolm Wain on the right wing with the instruction "Relax, Look Up, Line to Fuller!". The instructions were followed to the letter allowing Steve Fuller to hammer a cross behind the keeper for Forster to deflect in to goal at the back post.

As the game came to a close, excellent work from Dax Debice and Peter Colebourn was rewarded with another penalty corner. This time Rolph slipped the ball left to Dave Cooke whose shot was blocked by the goalkeeper's pads with the ball dropping at the feet of none other than Alan Forster who appeared to stop for a moment to ponder 'jug-avoidance' before tapping the ball into goal and claiming a deserved hat-trick.

The Men's 5s finish the 1st half of the season in 2nd place with a game in hand and only 3pts behind South Saxons. The 5s return on 6th January for another 3pm Home game vs Eastbourne 5s

Man of the Match: Alan Forster - thanks for the goals and thanks for the jug of Harveys. #happyhockey

Match Report: Malcolm Wain