Steyning Town beat neighbours Loxwood in goal-filled derby

Alex Koritsas opened the scoring for the Barrowmen on 21 minutes with a tidy finish.

Debutant Cian Tilley doubled the Steyning lead five minutes after some superb individual play.

The visitors added a third two minutes later as Tilley bagged his second.

Former Loxwood player Matt Boiling continued the Barrowmen onslaught on 38 minutes with a superb strike to make it four.

Callum Dowdell pulled one back for Loxwood two minutes before the break to make it 4-1.

Boiling got his brace ten minutes after the restart with a superb drive into the corner of the net.

Charlie Pitcher scored for the Magpies on 65 minutes to make it 5-2 with a well taken effort.

Tilley, however, restored the four-goal advantage two minutes later to complete his hat-trick.

Jordan Warren pulled another goal back for Loxwood in the last seconds of the game, but it proved too little too late for the hosts as the Barrowmen came away with the convincing win.

The result saw Steyning move up to tenth in the Premier Division while the Magpies remain rooted to the bottom-of-the-table.

Loxwood interim manager Mark Courtney said: “It’s got to be one of the strangest games I’ve seen for a while.

“In the first 15 minutes we were playing really well, knocking the ball about nicely and we looked composed and then I don’t know what happened.

“There were some individual errors out there but we should have got a result at the weekend.

“The guys give me everything every week and they did it again on Saturday.

“We’ve just got to stop making some of these silly mistakes and see what we can do, but it was a tough one to take.

Steyning Town boss Gerry Murphy added: “It was good result for us but both teams looked a bit low in confidence after suffering a run of not so good results.

“It was a great debut for Cian to get a hat-trick, plus young Alex Koratsis also opened his account for Steyning.

“The result was particularly good for us as we were missing six or seven players through suspension and other commitments outside of football.”

Loxwood were narrowly beaten 3-2 by Crawley Down Gatwick at Steyning’s Shooting Field on Tuesday evening.

This Saturday sees Steyning visit AFC Uckfield Town while the Magpies make the trip to third-from-bottom Saltdean United.

Loxwood: Davy, Courtney, Warren, Allen, French, Colbran (Dunningham 65), Dowdell, Webster, Goldson (Pitcher 20), Bennett (Slaughter 70), Karl. Unused: Elmellas, East.

Steyning Town: Kelly, Hards, Radmore, Boiling, Maher, Gathern, Niner, Koritsas (Sabino 46), Tilley (Harvey 85), Romain (Kent 82), Bloomfield. Unused: Trigwell.