After the stormy weather of the weekend it was a moonlit and still Tuesday evening at the Polegrove as Bexhill United prepared to take on Worthing United in the RUR Cup in front of a healthy midweek crowd, up for a bit of knockout football.

Worthing United stand a division below the Pirates in the old County League structure but have had an impressive start to the current season and have built an energetic young side with a reputation for moving the ball at speed around the deck and wasting no time in getting into advanced positions.

Basically, they like to play a bit of football and that’s how they set themselves up for the challenge of this fixture.

On six minutes Worthing’s pressing game brought an early reward. Robbing a Pirates defender, Kamil danced forward and squared the ball to Thurgar who banged it home for 1-0.

There was a decent-sized crowd at the Polegrove to see Bexhill United take on Worthing Utd | Pic by Geoff Martin

placeholder image — There was a decent-sized crowd at the Polegrove to see Bexhill United take on Worthing Utd | Pic by Geoff Martin

Both keepers were to have busy evenings. On 12 minutes it was Finn Holter who saved well for Bexhill to keep it at 1-0 and five minutes later Theo Coombs forced a great stop from the young Worthing keeper. Charlie Playford headed just over from the resulting corner.

On 25 minutes Gainsford in the Worthing goal was at it again, tipping over a bullet header from Dale Penn that had goal written all over it. It was end-to-end stuff stuff now and moments later Kamil was booked for diving in the box but dusted himself down to almost immediately win a high ball over the top, finding himself one on one with the keeper and finishing easily for 2-0.

So, for the second time in three days Bexhill found themselves two adrift at the break – but they came out like men possessed, determined to pull things round.

Worthing were pushed back as they tried to soak up the pressure. Luke Donaldson had a good chance set up by Coombs and Shonk but couldn’t quite find a clean contact.

Almost immediately Coombs picked the ball back up on the angle of the box and rifled a precision strike into the bottom corner. Bexhill could smell it was game on now. On 55 minutes Ant Thomas got forward at pace down the left and put in a wicked cross that was crying out to be finished but it went begging.

Ten minutes later the Bexhill pressure paid off. Donaldson saw his shot saved but Jack Shonk was on hand to dispatch the rebound. The Pirates now went in search of a winner.

When it came it was a cracker and it was that developing partnership of Jack Shonk and Luke Donaldson again. Shonk whipped in the free kick and Donaldson deep at the far post rose to get his head on it and direct the ball like a bullet into the top corner.

There were a few hairy moments as Bexhill fought to hang onto the lead and Worthing chucked everything into forcing the game to penalties. On the edge of full time Holter got down to block a shot on the line in a proper old cup-tie scramble.

It was the last decisive action of the match and Bexhill took the honours, a place in the next round and some momentum as they head off to Guernsey for a league game at the weekend.