Cousins keeps his cool to give Shoreham hope in relegation battle

On Saturday they lost a dramatic home game 3-2 to Horsham YMCA.

After Thomas Howard-Bold scored deep into injury time to make it 2-2, it looked like the Musselmen had claimed a valuable point – that after Lee Garnham had scored their first goal earlier in the half.

But YMCA found an even later winner – with Leon Fisher netting in the tenth minute added on to break Shoreham’s hearts.

That left them in the bottom two of the premier division table but on Monday they went away to AFC Varndeanians and won 2-0 to move up to 18th, above Loxwood on goal difference.

George Cousins was the goal hero with both – one either side of half-time – and now Shoreham can make sure of finishing outside the bottom two at home to Eastbourne United – themselves going for glory in the race for the play-offs – at Middle Road on Saturday. All local support welcome!

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Petersfield 0 Wick 1

SCFL premier

Lee Baldwin praised his players for producing an ‘old school Wick performance’ at Love Lane to gain revenge against a Petersfield side who taught them a lesson at the beginning of the season.

The Rams won 6-1 at Crabtree Park early on, which led to concerns that the Dragons would be facing a long hard winter at the wrong end of the table. But they are now nestled nicely in mid-table and looking to finish their first term back at this level on a high.

“We were without five or six of our best players, which has been a recurring theme but this was an old school Wick performance,’ said Baldwin. ‘Petersfield battered us at our place early in the campaign and it was the one time this year I thought we looked a bit out of our depth, a worry at the time.

“So we knew what they are like, that they are chasing the playoffs and that they would try to pass us to death and set about a more disciplined way of playing which worked a treat thanks to the boys putting in a tremendous shift.

“We could have been head at half-time but Josh Irish produced a great save from their goalkeeper and after Dave Crouch put us ahead after we soaked up pressure we defended like warriors. It was just the tonic after a couple of performances that weren’t acceptable.”

The Dragons finish their season at home to Bexhill on Saturday (3pm).

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West Sussex League

Yapton beat Optimus 1-0 in Division 2 South of the West Sussex League.

Mention the Optimus team to stand-in Yapton goalkeeper Clem Ugoani in the future and he might well say "That's when I was man of the match”. And it would be difficult to argue with that.

In the goalless first half he made a couple of superb saves and generally handled well.

Then he came out of goal for the last 15 minutes, to be replaced by Aiden McVey, and with only a minute left, he rose to head home Joey Aldridge's corner to grab full points.

Earlier, Scott Hunter missed a sitter for Yapton when he struck the bar from two yards and Yapton were indebted to manager James Shaw, forced into being a sub because of injury, when he headed off his own goal-line.

Last week, Bosham included a large number of first-team players and Yapton rose to the occasion and might well have got away with a point – but Bosham won the Division 2S game 2-0.

After eight minutes the visitors were caught square and a home striker burst through to easily beat stand-in goalkeeper Clem Uguani.

Gradually, Yapton improved and particularly in the second half, might have scored several times. Daniels Vild fired inches wide of the Bosham goal and Scott Hunter later hit the bar and brought a fine save from the home 'keeper. Against the run of play, Bosham scored again six minutes from time.