Shoreham sunk by South Park on Bostik League South bow

Chris Smith's first half strike, coupled with efforts in the second 45 minutes from Kieran Lavery, Joe Jackson and Jack Mazzone saw South Park run out comprehensive 4-0 victors at Middle Road.

Sammy Donnelly's side, who were promoted as Southern Combination League Premier Division champions last term, were dealt a harsh lesson in what was the club's first-ever fixture at this particular standard.

A slick South Park move was finished off by Lavery after 20 minutes to ensure his team went into the interval 1-0 ahead.

The Sparks then struck twice in under a minute on the hour to all but secure the the three points.

Mussels' goalkeeper James Broadbent was adjudged to have brought down Mazzone in the area, with Lavery making no mistake from the spot-kick to double his side's lead on the hour.

South Park had a third less than a minute later courtesy of Jackson, before Mazzone rounded off the scoring 20 minutes from time.

Shoreham boss Donnelly wants his team to learn from the harsh lesson they were given.

He said: "They are a team tipped to do well this season and were strong on the day. Having said that, I was really disappointed with our second half performance.

"I felt we did well defending in the wind in the first 45 minutes but let ourselves down in the second.

"We gave a couple of cheap goals away and we need to learn to stop making the mistakes we did today. If we keep making these errors teams will punish us, particularly at this level."

Shoreham survived an early scare less than two minutes in after Jackson got in behind the home side's defence, only to poke wide of the goal as Broadbent rushed out to close his shooting angle down.

Mussels then had a great chance to take the lead 12 minutes later. Mark Goldson showed great persistence down the left, evetually outmuscling Dylan Merchant, then his cross picked out Tom Burton but he blazed well over.

The Sparks had looked dangerous going forward and went in front with 20 minutes gone. A free-flowing move saw Lavery send Mazzone away down the left, he then found Smith for the easiest of tap-ins from all of six yards.

South Park's front four of Lavery, Mazzone, Smith and Jackson caused problems for the remainder of the half but Shoreham stood firm to go in one goal down at the interval.

Mussels were then all but out of the contest in the space of 60 seconds on the hour mark.

Mazzone was played in behind, before going down under a Broadbent challenge with a penalty awarded after 60 minutes. Lavery slammed the resulting spot-kick home to double South Park's lead.

It got worse for Mussels less than 60 seconds later as Broadbent came off his line to close Lavery down but the forward picked out Jackson with a cross and he poked into an empty net.

Mazzone then rounded off the scoring with a clever finish 20 minutes from time. The forward, going away from goal, somehow fired a left-foot strike under Broadbent from the corner of the 18-yard box to make it four.

Shoreham travel face Horsham at Culver Road in their second Bostik League South match of the season on Tuesday.

SHOREHAM: Broadbent; Gathern, Denyer, Watson, Hand; Myers, Caplin; Packer, Burton, Goldson; Archibald. Subs: Simmonds (Caplin, 52), Donaldson (Myers, 84), Nayee, Rudgwick, Quadri.

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