FOOTBALL: Mile Oak ease to victory at Southwick

They moved up to fourth in the table with the victory and will go top if they win their games in hand. They trail leaders Rustington by four points with three more games to play, and Oak boss Anthony Whittington said: "We've got an important month coming up now with seven league matches in January.

"We've had a good start to the league season but still have 22 league games to go and have got to kick-on.

"If we win five or six of the games this month, we could go top but we've got some tricky away matches, and some tough ones at home.

"But if we come out having won the majority of the games, we'll be in a strong position."

After Southwick had started brightly on Saturday, Mile Oak took control and never looked back after taking a 25th-minute lead. Wickers keeper Marc Hildersley fumbled Lloyd Skinner's corner on to the bar and after a goalmouth scramble, Ryan Sargent fired home the loose ball for his first goal since April 2007.

Oak doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Skinner brilliantly fired the ball into the top corner from 18 yards after Gary French's pass.

Danny Curd missed an opening to make it 3-0 before half-time, and Paul Eaton then failed to take four chances in the second half, the first of which saw him shoot an empty net over from 12 yards.

Oak did get a third goal with seven minutes left, though. Substitute Wayne Whittington played in top-scorer Danny Curd, who fired home his 23rd goal of the season.

Boss Whittington added: "We should have won by more but their keeper made some good stops and some of our finishing wasn't as good as it could have been."

Wickers player-manager Dominic Shepherd said: "We were really poor and Mile Oak deserved to win.

"We were off our game and are just very inconsistent at the moment.

"We want to keep ourselves up in the top five, though. Anyone can beat anyone in this league but I feel that we are one of the better footballing sides.

"We had a good crowd on Saturday, there must have been around 150 people, and I'd like to thank them for their support.

"It would be nice to see a few more people at our other home games, and we're at home to Seaford on Saturday (1.45pm).

"It's another tough game, and if we're going to finish in the top five, I think it's a game we've got to win."

SOUTHWICK: Hildersley; Lipscombe, Turner, Rahaman, Donoghue; Stideford, Bentley, Green, McNeill, Hayward; Wotherspoon. Subs: Bean (Hayward 60), Laing (Rahaman 75), Fleming (Turner 80), Noakes.

MILE OAK: Stenning; Ash, Paine, Porter, Sargent; Eaton, Pulling, French, Skinner; Curd, Paterson. Subs: W.Whittington (French 75), Burnett (Paterson 79), Livesey.

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