Charker hails his side’s ‘tremendous’ performance against Eastbourne United

Charker was without captain Aaron Walsh through suspension, Jimmy Cochrane & Ben Palmer were unavailable whilst Charker continued to give young Lewis Westlake gametime with the reserve side who face local rivals Haywards Heath at the Colwell.

In the absence of Walsh, Josh Hawkes took the mantel to join the back four alongside Josh Bryant and Steve Smith came in alongside Luke Leppard in the only changes from the side that went down 3-2 at Loxwood two weeks prior.

They started the game by far the inferior side and were dealt a shocking blow by going 1-0 down after just three minutes when United capitalised on Rangers lacklustre start when Jason Taylor slammed home from 18 yards from a set piece which had clearly been rehearsed on the training pitch.

It seemed Rangers needed this to get their act together after a two week break since their last competitive game. Sure enough, it took four minutes for Rangers to bring the game back to level pegging when Steve Smith won a penalty which was questioned heavily from the United players which Jamie Weston duly despatched in his usual clinical fashion and Rangers were back in the game.

On 30 minutes, Nathan Millroy found himself in behind the United back four who seemingly stopped in the opinion that Luke Leppard was offside but Millroy came from an onside position and, despite an initial hesitate, took the ball round Tanner to slot home putting Rangers 2-1 up. This along with the penalty decision riled home manager Simon Rowland, who from his seat in the stand made his view very directly to the match official along with his frustrated players.

Smith could have made it 3-1 before the break when he broke through the United back four and when one on one with home keeper, experienced Tanner, Smith over hit his lob when perhaps he didn’t realise how much time he had, although clearly frustrated, Smith & Leppard had given the United back four a rugged time for the whole first 45 and this continued into the second period.The second half started slow but on the 54th minute Steve Smith got his just deserts after bundles of hard work by clinically slotting home from 12 yards when through under pressure from two United defenders.

As United chased the game, the game opened up somewhat and Rangers had three or four other good chances which they didn’t take advantage of.

A very organised and disciplined performance in the remaining 30 minutes saw Charkers side pick up three points at both Eastbourne sides this season and points which many may not have predicted at the start of the season.

Charker said after the game ‘I’m a very happy manager tonight. We knew it would be very difficult coming here today as they are always well organised and very difficult to beat - they’re FA vase run last season goes some way to demonstrate that. But take nothing away from our boys today we were different class.

On performances like that there’s no reason we can’t be right in the mix by Christmas. I set the players a point target before the game today and we need to use this as a platform and get some momentum for the next four games to achieve that and more in the new year. The character we showed today was tremendous and the boys thoroughly deserve the three points. The way we dug in and continued to go for it in the second half was an absolute credit to the lads.’