Steyning stay third with victory over ten-man Oakwood

Steyning celebrate a goal earlier this season. Picture: Stephen Goodger

Charles Romain, Ashley Finch and Craig Knowles all struck as Town stayed third in the Southern Combination League Division 1 standings.

Having suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Lingfield last time out, Steyning manager Gerry Murphy was pleased to see his team return to winning ways.

He said: “We started very well and scored a good goal, which settled us.

“Last week’s defeat was hard to take but with ten men it was hard work.

“Unfortunately for Oakwood, that happened to them after 30 minutes this week.

“We continued to play some good football and the second goal from Finchy was finished like a striker.

“We scored a very good team goal to finish things off with Craig getting it.

“We move onto Saturday’s game at Midhurst, another good performance needed to get a decent result.”

Steyning needed to start well after last week’s home defeat and they did just that.

Romain fired past Brendan Milborrow in Oakwood’s goal to give Town the lead on ten minutes.

A tough afternoon for the visitors was made even harder as they were reduced to ten men on the half-hour.

Kieron Purkis was shown a straight red card for a foul on Finch.

Steyning then added a second just five minutes later when Finch crashed the ball home.

A fine team goal then rounded off the scoring for the home side. Knowles was on hand to finish the move off on the hour to make it 3-0.

With league leaders Saltdean United being held to a draw by East Preston, Steyning have now closed the gap on the table-toppers to just two points, although they have played a game more.

Steyning are back on the road on Saturday when they travel to Midhurst.

STEYNING TOWN: Rose; Clarke, Faber, Hartley, Pickford, Levoi, Wadey, Knowles, Milner, Romain, Finch. Subs: Amess.

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