Men’s 2s Blow Brighton Away

The men’s 2s travelled the short distance to Blatchington Mill school looking to both continue their promising start to the second half of the season and earn pay back after a painful 1-0 defeat in the October home leg. Whilst the same for both teams, the bitter cold and sheet rain added an additional element to overcome.

Despite a vigorous and intensive warm up the men in green struggled to keep the ball early on as an energetic Brighton 3s pounced on two defensive laps and took a 2-0 lead after ten minutes. With Clinch’s blood starting to boil, captain Chewy called for calm and soon Lewes got a foot hold in the game with Tom Clinch, Oli Loader, Danny Poulson and Tom Bentley controlling the midfield. Lewes’s new found footing in the game soon payed off as neat combination play found Thomas Wylie at the back post to bundle in, reducing the deficit to just one.

Half time provided a vital opportunity for Lewes to refocus on the game plan and keep things simple. Something must have worked as three minutes into the second half, Oli Amos exquisitely turned the Brighton center back inside out and fed Max Murray to level. 2-2 and all to play for.

Cries of “just calm down” came from a rattled Brighton’s defence as the forward line of Jack Searl, Oli Amos, Max Murray, Seb Daniels and Thomas Wylie ran them ragged and forced mistake after mistake. Soon Wylie found some space in the Brighton D only to be savagely hacked by both keeper and defender resulting in a penalty stoke to Lewes. Captain Chewy calmed his nerves and dispatched it to complete the come back. 3-2 with 45 minutes gone.

Lewes weren’t done yet and continued to go at Brighton, winning a string of short corners. Despite a wayward injection, stopper Hamish Middleton fed Oli Amos, who slipped to Max Murray who found Thomas Wylie to score a superbly worked goal and his second of the game. 4-2.

Brighton were in shock now and soon Seb Daniels found the ball on the edge of the Brighton circle and smashed a powerful shot into the bottom right hand corner, despite not being able to feel his hands!

With ten minutes to go, now was the time to shut out Brighton and the back line of Hamish Middleton, Tom Voller, Callum Boyland, Sam Anderson, Theo Whiting and Billie Palmer weren’t to be beaten again, completing a remarkable come back from the men in green. Final score 5-2.

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MOM: whilst there were numerous candidates across the pitch... both this award and the result is dedicated to David Cooke of the Men’s 6s who suffered a very nasty finger injury at the weened - best wishes and a speedy recovery from all the Men’s 2s.