Brilliant Barrowmen complete double with cup final comeback

The scoreline doesn’t tell the full story as Town put in a poor performance during the first half, going in one goal down, and whatever was in the half-time tea certainly did the trick as they came out fully firing in the second half.

Already without the influential Finn Daniels-Yeomans and Joe Benn, the day got off to an unfortunate start when captain Dion Jarvis declared himself not fit to play due to a sickness bug.

A last-minute change to the line-up is not ideal and it looked like the Barrowmen never got to grips with it in the opening 45 minutes. Their opponents, playing with a low block and five men at the back, were happy to sit in absorb possession and hit Town on the break when they could.

Steyning were getting increasingly frustrated as the Common rearguard soaked up the pressure with relative ease. Crutwell in the Common goal was relatively untroubled.

Common broke up pitch and scored a goal with a low drive that deflected in past Bromage by Sam Ellis from the edge of the area on the half-hour mark.

Common had their tails up at this point and went into the break feeling confident, while Town were pleased to get in and regroup.

The second half was a different ball game. Town came out absolutely pumping and had already gone close a couple of times, most notably from a drive from Callum Dowdell, when Alex Plummer brought them level just before the hour mark.

He did so with a beautiful curled right-footed shot from the edge of the area into the bottom corner after being teed up by Stan Bridgman – Plummer's first goal of the season.

In the blink of the eye, it was two for Town as great work down the right by the hard-working Honore saw a low cross to the far post, where Stan Bridgman and Evan Hoarty fought to get there first with the goal ultimately being awarded to Bridgman, his 40th goal of the season.

Town were now dominating, with Worrall, Plummer and Honore getting on top in midfield. The Barrowmen were playing the relentless, rhythmic tempo, passing game that’s become their trademark this season.

It seemed inevitable a third goal would come, although against the backdrop that Common still posed the occasional threat, and Bromage had to be called in to action to tip a rasping shot over the bar.

Alex Brewer and Harry Heath were introduced to create more pace and mobility up front against tiring limbs, and made an impact. Brewer was denied once by a good save by Crutwell but within minutes he scored the third goal that no doubt wrapped up the match, racing on to a through ball and deftly lobbing the keeper.

There was still time for the lively Hoarty to cap it off for Town with the fourth as he finished well, cutting inside in the box and drilling low into the far right hand corner.

The final whistle came and Steyning had added the cup to the SCFL title. Step four football in the Isthmian league awaits and this time the club feel more ready for the challenges ahead – with a large amount of money spent on infrastructure over the past 18 months and a clearer idea of what is required on the pitch. Common were excellent on the day and are always tough to play against. This was their manager Russell Eldridge’s 650th game as player-boss – an incredible achievement.

Town: M Bromage, Blencowe, T Bromage, Allen, Rance, Plummer, Worrall, Honore, Hoarty, Bridgman, Dowdell Subs used: Brewer, Docherty, Oladokun, Heath Not used Jarvis.