1-0 Victory for Men's 5s Away vs Mid Sussex 3s

FIXTURE: Sussex Div 3
HOME TEAM: Mid Sussex Men's 3s. 0
AWAY TEAM: Lewes Men's 5s. 1 (Dax Debice)

On Saturday a physical midfield battle between Lewes Men's 5 and Mid Sussex Men's 3 saw the men in green return home victorious following a second half strike from Dax Debice.

As both sides arrived, warmed up and greeted familiar faces, it was obvious this would be a closely fought game. Within the first 5 minutes Mid Sussex came close with a goal-bound penalty corner hit, confidently kicked wide by Charlie 'Clean-Sheet' Palmer. A long aerial ball from Tom Fewster then released Dax Debice at the other end only to be crowded out by 3 defenders.

The 'battle' then commenced in midfield where the pace of Phil Brown, Reza Azimi and Dax Debice could only be countered with hard physical tackling that saw Brown brought down from behind on numerous occasions. Hearts dropped as Lewes Centre-Back Tom Fewster was brought down awkwardly, twisting 'that knee' and confining him to the dugout for the rest of the half. Alan Forster stepped in to defence alongside Dave Mansell, Tim Bullen and Simon Murray and still, nothing passed.

Reza came close at the other end, running on to and hitting a nice pass from Peter Colebourn and Malcolm Wain hit the side netting with a chest height volley from a deflected Heinzl cross but otherwise the forwards from both sides hardly touched the ball, resulting in a half-time deadlock.

The skipper's match notes show nothing worth recording for some time after the break due to the continued stalemate. Rob Heinzl and Mike Fuller both continued to drive down the wings but the home-side protected their goal well with two defenders ensuring nothing reached Peter Colebourn at Centre Forward.

Eventually, with 15 minutes left on the clock, one such drive by Heinzl saw his cross deflected by a defender out to the top of the D where it was picked up by Dax Debice who turned quickly and hit a thundering strike past the Mid Sussex goalkeeper into the bottom corner.

Mid Sussex clamoured for an equaliser but, following the success of last week's Half Court Press, Phil Brown called for it again and every Lewes player got behind the ball. Whilst the Lewes skipper's continued shout to "Keep.....The.....Ball" may have annoyed the spectators, it was followed, frustrating the home-side and securing another 3 points for the Men's 5s.

With 4 clean sheets, the 5s have taken 10 points from their last 4 games, rising from bottom of the league to finish the first half of the season in 8th position.

MOM: Phil Brown - strong performance and kept his head despite provocation.