Light delight: Bexhill boss happy to see depleted team beat Little Common

James Stone and Aaron Cook’s goals won it for the Pirates, who end 2022 in a healthy eighth spot in the SCFL premier division.

Common reach the turn of the year in 13th but with a number of games on hand on all their rivals.

Bexhill boss Ryan Light, who had to watch the game back on video because is he is subject to a ban from the ground, rather than just he touchline, said: “It was a very good result considering the amount of players we had missing for the game.

"The squad got hit quite badly over Christmas period with the flu bug that’s going around, but the youngsters who stepped in did a great job.

“I’ve watched the game back via our footage and we started slowly and looked a team that hadn’t played for five weeks.

"It took conceding the first goal before we woke up and then we finished the first half much better with Stephen Okoh hitting the bar on his debut and having a big impact in our equaliser, dribbling through the Little Common defence before teeing up James Stone to score.

“Second half we were excellent – the cobwebs had been blown away, we played more on the front foot and looked sharper. We forced their keeper into numerous saves before getting a deserved winner at the death when Aaron Cook fired into the bottom corner.”

Bexhill go to Eastbourne Utd on Monday, when Little Common host Eastbourne Town.