Common suffer third straight loss

Steve Morris continued his rich vein of goalscoring form with a spectacular effort in Little Common's defeat at AFC Uckfield Town

Two goals in quick succession inside the final 15 minutes meant Common lost 3-1 away to AFC Uckfield Town in their latest Macron Store Sussex County Football League Division Two fixture.

Common player-manager Russell Eldridge said: “I thought for long spells it was a game we were going to get something out of, but we had a mad minute where we gave away two goals and that made it extremely difficult.”

The visitors made one change to the side which began the previous weekend’s match at Rustington with midfielder Sam Brown returning in place of Liam Hudson.

Eldridge felt that Common were quite comfortable during the first half of a fairly even game against fourth-placed opposition. Common enjoyed a fair amount of the ball and Lewis Hole had a chance to open the scoring after being put through by Martin Denny.

All of a sudden Common fell behind when they lost possession and the ball was played through for Howard Davey to slot past Matt Cruttwell.

Common got back on level terms before half time, though, through Steve Morris, who brought the ball under control before unleashing a tremendous shot from 25 yards which struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced down.

Uckfield didn’t think the ball had crossed the line, but the linesman did and the in-form Morris, who again performed particularly well, could celebrate his 12th goal of the season, nine of which have come in the league.

On the whole there wasn’t a great deal of goalmouth action as a wet and heavy pitch with long grass made life difficult for both sides.

Eldridge felt Common were doing okay for large parts of the second half until getting caught by that quick double blast which swung the game firmly in Uckfield’s favour.

The hosts went back in front when a high Common defensive line got caught and an Uckfield player went through before squaring for Elliott Wood to tap in.

At 2-1 Common still had a chance, but their hopes were killed off by an almost instant third Uckfield goal. Common lost the ball soon after they kicked-off and Joe Miller found the net.

Common: Cruttwell, Sherwood, McEniry, Smith, R. Mote, Brown, Eldridge, Feakins (Haward), Denny, Hole, Morris. Sub not used: Tudor.