Men's 5s put 3 past Worthing 5s (4s)

FIXTURE: Sussex Div 3
HOME TEAM: Lewes Men's 5s. 3 (Pendered, Heinzl, Debice)
AWAY TEAM: Worthing Men's 5s. 0

On Saturday 11th place Lewes Men's 5s scored a resounding victory over 3rd place Worthing 5s in a game that promised so many more goals but for the goal-keeping master class shown at both ends of the pitch.

In the Worthing goal, ex National League goalkeeper Simon Keys wouldn't lay down, well he did, quite a lot actually, to save everything Lewes struck at him, until finally a Steve Fuller short corner strike hit his body and the rebound was neatly lifted over him into the net by poacher Ollie Pendered.

At the other end, Clean Sheet Palmer marshalled the Lewes defence of Tim Bullen, Tom Fewster, Steve Fuller and Simon Murray to resurrect the 5s 'Hard To Beat' mantra of last season. "You shall not pass" may have been mentioned by returning Sammy Newman, and nothing did. So ended the first half with the men in green 1-0 up.

In the 2nd period, the 5s solid midfield and it's youngest and quickest forward line in years, saw Worthing resort to a long crash ball tactic from each 16. That Lewes forward line? Well, with Fuller in defence and the skipper travelling with the 6s, the 5s welcomed Barnaby Heinzl and Josh Randall from The Lions to join the frenetic pace of Dax Debice and James Williams up front. With last years Lion's graduates now playing 'up club' it was refreshing for the 5s to see the quality and pace of the next batch.

With 15 minutes left, and the best move of the game, Sammy Newman played a ball through to James Williams on the left who drove into the Worthing D and passed to Dax Debice in front of goal who unselfishly passed right to Barnaby Heinzl who duly unleashed a trademark narrow angle Heinzl strike past the advancing goalkeeper into the bottom corner.

From the retake and pass back, Charlie Cooke 'did all the work'. He picked up the Worthing crash ball, turned on the gas and dribbled through the visitor's midfield and defence only to find the ex-Beeston goalkeeper bearing down on him. A quick slip right took out the goalkeeper enabling Dax Debice to crash the ball into the backboard for a well-deserved goal.

A feisty last 10 minutes saw a couple of cards shown and Worthing throw everything forward only to be thwarted time and again by our very own goalkeeper extraordinaire who dropped and rolled about making a number of last ditch saves to ensure both GoalKeeping Palmer's could discuss their 3-0 wins over Saturday night dinner.

MOM - Outstanding performance by Sammy Newman

Next week the 5s have a 10.30am start at The Littlehampton Academy versus Middleton 2