FOOTBALL: County League round-up (April 1)

WORTHING United Football Club joint manager Jason Rutherford believes his side need six more wins to secure an immediate return to County League Division 1.

Their 0-0 draw at promotion rivals Sidley on Saturday saw them extend their advantage over fourth-placed Loxwood to two points, with four games in hand.

Rutherford said: "It was a decent point, I would have taken it before the game although we probably should have had all three. Little Common are the main danger to the top three now, but the way I see it is if we win all our remaining home games, that'll see us promoted.

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"Our last game is against Rye, and it could well come down to that."

In a tight game of few chances, Darren Annis went down in the penalty area but referee Duncan Brooker waved away United's appeals. United were awarded a penalty in the 84th minute, though, but Julian Curnow's poorly struck spot-kick was beaten away by Sidley keeper Gavin Bourne.

On Saturday's match, Rutherford added: "It was an even game and both teams cancelled each other out. We played well, but the penalty miss was frustrating."

WORTHING UNITED: Standen; P.Proto, Curnow, Philpott; Bean, Harris, Benn, Hayward, Joseph; Annis, P.Elliot. Subs: Packer, Moody, Koroma.

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Also in Division 2, Lancing bounced back from their midweek horror show against Little Common to record a 2-1 win over a Steyning side, who are struggling at the bottom of the table.

Lancers' regular keeper, Luke Green, suffered a recurrence of a dislocated shoulder in the warm-up, so they were forced to field assistant manager Martyn Rea between the posts.

The in-form Lee Garnham headed Lancers in front on 19 minutes, and Dan Griffin turned and shot home for 2-0 on the hour mark.

A defensive error by Dan Ford allowed Sesy Backley to reduce the deficit for Steyning, which set up a nervy finale.

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And, although Steyning did put Lancers under some pressure, Rea pulled off a couple of excellent saves to ensure Lancing kept all three points.

Lancers manager Martin Gander said: "Unfortunately, we let them back into it when we shouldn't have done.

"Two minutes after we scored our second, they pulled one back after a defensive error. Dan missed the ball and they ran through and punished us.

"It galvanised them a bit, as I thought it would do, but I thought we deserved all three points.

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"Foxy (Martyn Rea) pulled off a couple of good saves. But it was a great compliment to Mark Dalgleish (Steyning manager) as we had to change the line-up after the team sheet was in.

"It was outstanding from him as I know a lot of managers, especially in their predicament, would have said no."

LANCING: Rea; Early, Gander, Ford, Mighall; Boswell, Beard, Sims, Garnham; Griffin, Loversidge. Subs: Hunt (Sims 73), Clayton (Griffin 75), Skipper, Burton.

Storrington will be hoping to get back to action over Easter after they suffered another postponement on Saturday, when their Division 2 match at Wealden was postponed owing to a waterlogged pitch.

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