Southampton Edge Nine Goal Thriller

The 2s players woke up on a rainy ‪Sunday morning‬ after the 7- 2 victory over Crowborough which, despite being a gritty match, left the team in high spirits. Traffic was smooth, the tunes were lit and the weather improving. After the annoying long walk down from the car park, the team united in the yellow and green changing rooms for a rousing Chewy team talk. A rather successful warm up followed and the team felt confident as the ball was pushed back.

In the first few minutes Southampton 1s applied the pressure and a dangerous run gave them a 1-0 lead. However, Lewes weren't phased and soon after intuitive pressing from Mike Marchant gave Seb Daniels the ball at the top of the box and a decisive hit in the bottom left corner equalised the game. This didn't stop Southampton and a defensive marking lapse from Lewes left a free man and the score became 2-1. The game birthed many opportunities through both sides and a strong back line of Sam Rea, Sam Anderson, Jamie Neill and Theo Whiting fed balls through various angles and a hit from Jamie met the solid stick of Jack Searl in the box feeding the ball into the bottom left corner again. Pressure continued to mount from the opposition with a few successful short corners and the score was ‪at 4-2‬ to Southampton going into the half time team talk. The team ironed out the mistakes leaving us optimistic for the half that was to follow.

The movement of the Lewes midfield orchestrated the game with passing plays maneuvering around the opposition through Oli Loader and Danny Poulsen supported with balls played by Tom Clinch. This eventually led to a ball hitting a foot in Southampton's D and the short corner was powered into the left corner by Seb Daniels, decreasing the deficit to one. Our passing play continued to provide chances for the attack and the leads of Tony Izzard, Mike Marchant and Jack Searl gave the team more conviction. Despite this, another lucky chance fell to the Southampton attacker at the back post and the score became 5-3. Lewes weren't disconcerted and continued to dominate the possession. With minutes to go Theo Whiting found himself on the baseline due to some passing play with Tom Clinch and placed it on the foot of the Southampton centre back giving Lewes another short. A well worked left slip to Mike Marchant followed this and the ball was buried in the corner making the score line 5-4 with two minutes left. In spite of the ball staying with Lewes players, time was short and an equaliser didn't occur. 

Even though the team would not advance into the next round of the cup, the game was close and still gives us confidence for the games to come in the league.

MOM: Mike Marchant for some great play working around the Southampton defense.
DOD: Tom Clinch for caring so much yet not expressing it in the best way.