FA Cup: Littlehampton Town, Horsham YMCA, Steyning through

Littlehampton Town 1 Tooting and Mitcham United 0

by John Clarke

The Olympics may be in full swing with the Great Britain team winning a bevy of medals in Paris but there’s still time for a pleasant distraction from the Games by embracing the return of the football season.

And what could be a better place to start than an intriguing FA Cup tie between Littlehampton Town who are now approaching their third season of Isthmian League football and Tooting and Mitcham United who have now dropped below Littlehampton in the football pyramid as they start their second season in Step 5 and the Combined Counties League.

I have a confession to make here as my mum was a Mitcham girl and regularly watched the Terrors with her dad at their old Sandy Lane home in the 1940s and 50s when Tooting were a real force in the amateur game. They had quite an FA Cup pedigree too and in 1959 took First Division Nottingham Forest to a third round replay in the year Forest went on to win the Cup itself.

Fast forward to the 1970s and as a kid growing up in Sutton and watching my local non-league club Sutton United ply their trade in the Isthmian League, Tooting were a nemesis of theirs as they regularly got the better of Sutton over a period of years. Tooting also had another FA Cup run to remember in 1976 when this time they got as far as the 4th round before falling to Bradford.

Tooting remained a force at the top of the Isthmian game for some time but since the turn of the millennium , other than a few odd seasons at Premier Division level, they have suffered a slow decline They moved from their old Sandy Lane home to a state of the art stadium at Imperial Fields in 2002 but on pitch success has eluded them. In 2023 they were relegated to the Combined Counties League and a disappointing 13th place finish in their first season at that level meant that on paper they were underdogs for today’s game.

In contrast Littlehampton have been going through a period of unparalleled success in recent seasons. 2022 saw them become the first Sussex side to reach the FA Vase Final as well as becoming Southern Combination Champions which saw them promoted to Step 4 for the first time.

A solid mid table debut turned into more of a struggle last term. Ultimately relegation was evaded with a bit to spare and with a new stand built this summer and a host of new recruits hopes are high for a better campaign this time around.

Pre-season friendlies have come thick and fast but this game meant the phoney war was over with both sides eager for Cup progress before their league campaigns start in earnest. As if to mark the occasion the sun came out after a cloudy morning and a healthy crowd of 339 including plenty of visiting supporters were there to witness this extra preliminary round tie.

Picture special as Haywards Heath Town win at Hassocks in the FA Cup.

The punters didn’t have to wait long for a goal as Littlehampton drew first blood in the 8th minute. Alex Laing whipped in a cross from the left and a hapless defender could only divert the ball past a helpless Toby McKimm in the Tooting goal.

The visitors responded well and largely had the better of the rest of the half. James Binfield made a smart save in turning a snapshot on to a post in the 15th minute but was otherwise untroubled despite Tooting’s territorial dominance.

The second period saw Littlehampton assume greater control although with only one goal in it they could never relax. Indeed with five minutes left Tooting came within an inch of an equaliser when a shot hit the inside of the Golds post and agonisingly rebounded along the line rather than in. Frustration got the better of them in the final minute when Jamal Jimoh’s reaction to a Charlie Pitcher foul saw him see a red card to end his participation in this season’s FA Cup.

A few minutes of stoppage time ensued before his teammates experienced the same fate and the visitors might feel hard done by that their efforts weren’t rewarded with a replay.

As for Golds they will be very satisfied with progress and another home tie with Faversham in a fortnight’s time. In the meantime both sides will be hoping to build on today as their League programmes begin this week.

The Olympics might have another week to run but the football marathon has only just begun.

Merstham 7 Wick 0

Wick can’t wait to resume their great start to the Southern Combination Premier Division season after being unceremoniously dumped out of the FA Cup at Merstham.

The Dragons have started well in their first year back in the top-flight, gaining a good draw at Roffey on the opening day before a midweek win at Midhurst last Tuesday, but the wheels temporarily came off when they travelled to Surrey to face Isthmian League South East Division opposition.

Wick fell behind in the fourth minute and were trailing 2-0 at half-time before they succumbed to a second half barrage and manager Lee Baldwin said: ‘We were short in numbers with players like George Bingham, Dean Sherwood, Ryan Barratt, Sam Conolly and Matt Whitehead all missing and our bench mostly filled with Under-23 players.

‘No excuses though, Merstham are a very good side from a level above and gave us plenty of lessons to take on board. It’s important to learn from them and move forward, and I'm sure we will.

‘The boys showed plenty of character on the way home and we all had a laugh after my assistant manager Jon Tucker did best on the karaoke but lost £40 playing heads or tails. It was a disastrous attempt to overturn a £2 club fine for getting his mobile out in the dressing-room before the match.’

The Dragons hit the road again on Saturday when they return to league action with a trip to Hassocks before playing their first home game of the season when Loxwood visit Crabtree Park on Tuesday (7.30pm).

Horsham YMCA 5 Newhaven 1

by Kevin Gargini

On a mild summer’s afternoon with a hint of rain at the Herbert Direct Stadium there was the anticipation of a tough game for YM, who were comfortably beaten 3-0 in their last fixture between these two SCFL Premier Division clubs.

As expected the game kicked off with both teams battling with every challenge to get the upper hand. It was the away team with the first effort, Tom Vickers’ fourth-minute header just missed the target. This prompted YM to change gear and take control.

The tactics were well drilled into the home team and a weakness was clearly identified by the management team, the ball was played up to the strikers quickly and the fantastic Josh Neathey was switching the play with Scholes like passes from right to left.

The hosts took the lead in the eighth minute via a deflection as Conner Collcutt’s shot fortuitously wrong-footed the helpless Jake Buss and ended up in the back of the net.

The lead was doubled six minutes later when the Dockers carelessly lost possession in midfield. A great move down the right led to a pinpoint cross from Josh Neathey on to the head of Luke Roberts, who guided the ball into the net.

Two nil up and YM were cruising. The Dockers had their confidence draining away like the tide and it could have been even worse just four minutes later. YM missed a certain goal from right under the crossbar, but they kept going looking for more opportunities.

Not even the former Brighton & Hove Albion veteran striker Jake Robinson could get a foothold in the game for the Dockers as the defence held strong.

With half-time approaching, Newhaven goalkeeper Jake Buss was involved in a horrific collision which left the Dockers skipper concussed and in need of hospital treatment. After 17 minutes of first-half injury-time, YM went into the changing rooms happy but should have been 4-0 up. The match was still a contest at this point.

Second half kicked off with the Dockers having a sting in their tail from a half time scolding. YM were in no mood to be lenient and went for the throat like a hungry puma. The referee gave a contested free-kick to the YM on the 55th minute. It was swung in deep where captain Hayden Neathey met it unmarked and guided it into the goal to grab his team’s third.

The arrival of a fourth goal on the 67th minute was the second of the afternoon for Collcutt, who calmly beat the keeper after a beautiful pass from Luke Roberts.

YM waited until the last few minutes to put the cherry on the cake with their fifth. A cross from the right landed perfectly for the veteran midfielder, Ash Dugdale. Ash did his best Zinedine Zidane impression from the 2002 UEFA Champions League final and smashed a volley into the top corner, with the keeper motionless. The players and fans celebrated knowing they were one step closer to Wembley...

The Dockers pulled one back with the 90-minutes all but up. Luca Page and Billy Barker combined well down the left flank, before working the ball into the middle for Jack Shonk to sweep home a consolation.

A fantastic performance and wonderful result for the delighted YM boss Dean Carden, who said, “A game plan that was implemented by all at YM today. There’s still work to be done for us to really push on.”

The Herbert Direct man of the match went to Josh Neathey.

Next up is another home game, this time a league match against AFC Vardeanians on Tuesday (6 August) at 7.45pm.

Broadbridge Heath 2 Horley Town 1

Broadbridge Heath got their season off to a winning start on Saturday in the Emirates FA Cup with a 2-1 home win over Combined Counties Premier division side Horley Town.

The visitors had the first goalscoring opportunity in the 5th minute when a long ball down the right flank was chased down by Josh Rapson, the Horley No. 7 advanced into the penalty area and played the ball across the face of goal to Liam Trevatt, his effort was blocked at the post by Tad Bromage with keeper Billy Collings pouncing on the loose ball.

At the other end a Jamie Chesworth free-kick was played into Ben Aubrey with his back to goal and 12 yards out, the Heath striker turned his defender but was denied a clear strike of the ball by a Jake Roberts lunging tackle to win the ball and deny what would certainly have been the opening goal.

The Bears should have taken the lead on 12 minutes. Doughty picked up the ball in the centre of the park and ran towards the Horley goal before playing the ball out wide to Evans, his first time cross into the box was met by a powerful header from Aubrey, in the centre of the goal, 5 yards out and with the goal at his mercy but somehow the ball flew wide of the post much to the relief of the travelling Horley fans.

On 13 minutes a Horley free-kick, wide on the left, was played into the Heath penalty area towards Cameron Gyeabour who managed to get a toe of his outstretched leg to divert the ball inches wide of the post and out for a goal-kick.

With quarter of an hour gone, Doughty received the ball inside the penalty area wide on the right and played it into the path of Evans some 12 yards from goal; the Heath midfielder struck a low right foot shot that the Horley keeper George Hyde did well to block on the goal-line, the ball came back out to Doughty who drilled it in low to Ben Aubrey but his back heel saw Hyde make another important save on the goal line.

The game continued to flow from end to end but it remained 0-0 at the break.

Minutes into the restart and the Bears were in front, a move down the left found Cranmer-Flynn in space and he played a low cross into the penalty area to Aubrey who made no mistake this time, converting from close range. The perfect start to the second half or maybe not, because within minutes the visitor’s were back level when they were awarded a penalty for a foul in the box and Lewis Pearch stepped up to convert from the spot kick.

Heath started to get the upper-hand following several changes in personnel with the oncoming Dowdell, Parmiter and Leslie all full of running and searching for goals and it didn’t take long for their presence to have an impact when Doughty played a ball between the two Horley centre-backs allowing Dowdell to outpace the tiring defenders and slot past the advancing Hyde.

Heath could have added further goals in the closing stages, Doughty and Leslie were in a great position to add a third but a misunderstanding between the two so the chance go away, Matt Hay saw his dipping shot from distance drop just over the crossbar but it remained 2-1 at the final whistle with Heath advancing into the next round to be played away on the 17th August at local rivals Horsham YMCA.

Simmo said afterwards; A long way off our best but Horley were excellent and made it very difficult, much better in the 2nd half and our fitness levels showed, glad to get through this one after last season’s disappointment.

MOM: Mason Doughty

BBH: Collings, Sim, Chesworth, Penfold, Bromage, Marino, Cranmer-Flynn (Dowdell 61), Buchanan (Parmiter 67), Aubrey (Leslie 67), Evans (Hay 84), Doughty (Dyson 86).

Steyning Town FC 4 Hilltop FC 0

by Richard Woodbridge

Steyning Town eased into the preliminary round of the FA Cup with an ultimately comfortable win over Hilltop FC. However, the scoreline didn’t reflect everything that went on in the game.

The visitors were excellent during the first 30 minutes after their long trip down from North London. The Barrowmen had keeper Stromberg to thank you once again for keeping them in the game as Hilltop created three or four great opportunities.During the half chances were scarce at the other end with Steyning’s best chance falling to Goldson who side foot volleyed over when well placed.However, there was a big turning point in the game just before half-time as Radley-Martin was there to round off a good move and a neat slide pass from Rogers to finish well into the bottom left hand corner. A great time to get your noses in front as the halftime whistle went.No doubt there were a few constructive words at half-time as Town came out all guns blazing and put on a great second-half performance. They added the vital second goal minutes into the half as Meehan got on the end of a deep Malila cross, and nodded home as the keeper, tried to scramble clear.By now the game was very open and free flowing from end to end and Hilltop spurned a great chance to get back into the game with a penalty on the hour.However Stromberg was there again getting down well to his right for a fine save.This ignited Town again, and they got on top and were looking to get the icing on the cake. And the tasty icing with a cherry on top came in the last 10 minutes as Hilltop went down to 10 players. Firstly Barnes finished with a nice left foot from the edge of the box after being teed up by Francis. Seconds later, the tireless Weller pounced on a mistake and raced through to finish calmly. Right at the death there was still time for a disallowed Murrain goal.So 4-0 and into the next round for Steyning – however there had been a big scare early on and they will need to be on it from the first whistle next weekend (Aug 10) as their Isthmian league campaign starts with a home game against the Merstham FCTown: Stromberg, Clarke, Weller, Brown, Da Costa, Malila, Barnes, Edwards, Radley-Martin, Rogers, Goldson. Subs used: Francis, Killick, Towning, Murrain, Osei. Not used: Fuller. Roberts.

Eastbourne United 4 Sporting Bengal Utd 0

by Steve Huxley

Eastbourne United started their home season at Newhaven's Fort Road ground in the extra preliminary round of the emirates FA Cup on Saturday. With the Oval 3G not yet ready, the visitors from Gravesend were much fancied to take the honours back home.

The early exchanges were dominated though by United, McCreadie in particular being a foul magnet , before on 22 minutes he was hauled down in the area and the Bengal Right back saw Red. McCreadie himself converted the penalty for 1-0.

Once Bengal were down to 10, there only looked to be one winner as United dominated the midfield, despite kicking into lashing wind and rain, Ed Ratcliffe nearly doubled the lead on the half hour, but a great block kept it to one.

The halftime break invigorated United, with 5 minutes of the restart, Baran Kartals deep cross hit the bar, Ball collected and fed it to Ratcliffe to make it 2-0. Just 10 minutes later McCreadie had the ball in the net again, only to have it ruled out for offside.

Creese picked up a yellow shortly after, but United were not to be denied- McCreadie took an elbow to the face and was awarded a penalty, brilliantly saved by the keeper.

United didn’t wait too long for a third as McCreadie’s sublime pull down was fed to Charlie Ball to make it 3-0. United were starting to overrun the Bengal defence now, and in injury time the keeper hauled down McCreadie, who made it 4-0 at the second attempt.

United now face the long trip to Kingstonian in the next round, while this coming Saturday they make the even longer league trip to Petersfield.