Stakim fires Blues to late home victory

It has been a frustrating few weeks for the Blues as they had yet not played for almost a month, since a 3-1 defeat at home to Wick & Barnham on December 27.

The game looked to be heading for a draw after Tom Archer cancelled out Blues’ Steve Gettings’ first-half strike.

However, Josey Stakim netted a minute into injury-time to give Rustington the win.

Blue boss Trevor Waller was pleased to see his side return to action and claim all three points.

He said: “I felt we deserved the victory for our performance over the course of the 90 minutes. It’s obviously been far from ideal having no game for the past three weeks or so but we have managed to train very hard.

“We created a lot of chances and could well have been out of sight in the first half.

“I told the lads at the break to make sure we start the second half well and then we end up conceding two minutes later. The players responded really well, though, and created a lot of chances but just didn’t take them.

“Josey then stepped up and produced a great finish right on the final whistle to give us the win.”

Rustington took the lead on 24 minutes with a thunderbolt into the top corner from Gettings.

The Blues could have had a second soon afterwards but Stakim blazed over.

Westfield got themselves back on level terms two minutes into the second period when Archer fired home the loose ball after Rustington failed to clear there lines.

With the game looking as though it was going to be a draw, Rustington produced a moment of magic.

Ryan Hudson slotted Stakim in behind the Westfield backline and the Blues forward rounded the keeper before netting.

Blues travel to Oakwood on Saturday.

RUSTINGTON: Challen; Fraser, Bennett, S.Edwards, Precious, Clarke; Hudson, C.Edwards, Peters; Gettings, Stakim. Subs: Potts (Peters), Atterbury (C.Edwards).