Golds’ hopes hit by late Shelley winner

Joe Shelley played through the pain barrier, despite suffering a chipped shin bone in a tackle a week and a half earlier against the same opponents, and he returned to haunt Golds as he popped up with a late winner.

It was a game marred by some bizarre refereeing decisions that affected both sides at times.

Golds got off to a great start as a slightly fortunate bounce landed at Jason Jarvis’ feet and he set up Ben Gray, who confidently slotted the ball past Joel Harding after only seven minutes.

EP got back in the game as a Litlehampton throw found Darren Boswell, he played in Shelley, who was brought down by Julian Curnow. Boswell’s firecracker of a free kick went like a tracer bullet into the top corner giving Jon Hendrick no chance on 22 minutes.

Shelley forced a decent save from Hendrick after Boswell had crossed from the left wing on 33 minutes, although the game was getting increasingly niggly, a fact seemingly lost on referee Nigel Baker.

Another sloppy bit of play from Littlehampton gave EP the lead as Jamie Thompson received a poor call to turn and was robbed by Lee Barnard, who fed Boswell. He in turn sent Evan Archibald through on goal, and the striker smashed the ball into the corner in the first minute of stoppage time.

On 69 minutes, Jarvis fouled Marc Pullan for the fourth time according to the referee, and received a yellow card. A lengthy conversation ensued, leading Jarvis threatening to walk off.

Golds boss Mark Bennett sensibly opted to substitute his striker at this point, but Jarvis marched to the EP bench for another ‘conversation’, before being dragged away and then kicking a spare ball at the EP dugout.

Referee Baker opted to show Jarvis a second yellow card. Jarvis, doing himself no favours at all, then took as long as possible to leave the field and will almost certainly receive a lengthy ban. As the Golds man had already been substituted, 11 Gold shirts remained on the pitch.

Littlehampton had what seemed a reasonable claim for a penalty as Harding failed to call to Pullan at the near post, with the centre half appearing to handle the ball to his goalkeeper.

The linesman, who had a clear view of the incident, claimed not to see it, much to the chagrin of the visiting players and fans.

The visitors did get a penalty in the 88th minute, though, as the ball came through to Harding, who caught the ball with his leg up as protection.

Liam Humphreys chased the lost cause and collided with Harding’s foot. Although the linesman did not flag, the referee opted to have a lengthy chat with his colleague and eventually awarded a spot-kick and a yellow card for the home stopper, when, had an offence been committed, the card should possibly have been red. Mitchell Hand sent Harding the wrong way to set up a hectic finale.

It was EP who took the spoils, though, as Alex Duncan made a run down the right, played in Charlie Oatway, who laid off to Shelley and he buried his shot via the far post.

Reaction and pictures in this week’s paper.