Mens 5s beat Brighton 7s 3-0

Having initially been frustrated by their opponents Lewes opened the scoring thanks to Malcolm Wain's powerful, close range volley. The skipper then started another move finding Toby Rolph in the centre circle whose forward pass split the Visitor's defence and released Ben Wood on a solo run, doubling the lead with a sublime chip over the advancing Brighton goalkeeper.

Lewes finished the one-sided first half with possibly their best move of the game; a string of passes, a drive into the D and a slip pass confidently hammered into the corner of the goal by Steve Fuller.

Whilst the half-time talk centered on short, accurate passing, keeping the ball and taking every chance in the D - the skipper failed at the first hurdle, ending a Lewes high press by quite confidently passing the ball to the opposition to counter. Fortunately the Lewes 5s rear guard remained, as ever, 'Hard to Beat'.

Toby Hutchinson had an excellent game, stepping up to adult hockey from the Lions to join Richard Daniel, Chris Appleton and Tim Bullen in the stingiest defence in Sussex. His hard work at right-half saw some excellent work with Ben Wood and Peter Colebourn to dominate the right side of the pitch. On one occasion, some slick passing between the three culminated in a superb ball across the face of goal that was almost finished by Alan Forster and then almost finished by the skipper but mostly missed by the pair of them!

Brighton were not without their chances and changed tactics in the second half by placing a man-marker on each of the three Lewes forwards and leaving their Captain free at the back to play sweeper. It worked, it frustrated Lewes and forced mistakes although it seemed that the super long reach of Toby Rolph or the flat stick of Bill Short were always there to turn over each Brighton attack.

So the second period was primarily fought to and fro in the centre of the pitch and on the odd occasion that a Brighton attack crept through the wall it was quickly dealt with by Jon Cornish whose confident kicking and sliding tackles earned him yet another clean sheet and helped return the 5s to the top of Division 4.

Next Saturday Lewes 5s march on down to Eastbourne for a 10.30 start.