Boxing Day blues for Sidley

"IT LOOKED like we were too full of mince pies and beer" was joint manager Andy Laskey's frank analysis of Sidley United's nightmare 2-0 Boxing Day defeat at home to Rye United.

The Blues fell some way short of the required standard in a local derby they would have expected to win for the third successive Christmas.

And worryingly for a side usually so strong on home soil, 15th-placed United have triumphed in just one of six Sussex Division One games at Gullivers this season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Laskey said: "I thought we played a lot better in the second half, but we were terrible in the first half. I will make every excuse for the players if I think they deserve it, but it looked like they wanted to win more than we did."

Though well off colour, Sidley still ought to have got something out of a match which was played on a grey yet calm festive morning.

But they were left to rue a combination of poor defending for the goals, some wayward finishing and decent goalkeeping from their one time custodian Jon Gardner.

The first half was a relatively even affair with little in the way of goalmouth incident until Gardner made a marvellous double save from Steve Morris just before the half-hour mark.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Moments later Sidley were behind as the livewire Andy Garman scythed through the heart of their defence with a brilliant run before rifling into the roof of the net.

United stepped up a gear or two at the start of the second half and Peter Baker fired off a couple of decent efforts in the first half-a-dozen minutes.

But an uphill task became even more difficult when they went two adrift on the hour, Morris failing to track the run of Rye captain Marc Gall who headed home Tom Cusden's corner from six yards.

Sidley laid siege to the away goal during the final half-an-hour and still might have pulled off the great escape.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But Nick Whiteman (twice), Josh Brown, Scott McDonald and Graham Morris were all denied by Gardner, while Baker put one attempt just wide and hit the wall from a free kick.

Their fifth loss in six outings was confirmed when McDonald shot wide from an inviting position at the end and it seemed that Sidley probably wouldn't have scored had they played all day.

Related topics: