Wick boss Block enjoys return to Pagham

LATE drama at Pagham on Tuesday evening saw Wick boss Gary Block come away from his old stomping ground with a 3-2 win as Michael Frangou, Ashley Hunter, and Phil Turner were all on target to haunt their old club.

The Wick manager, who spent six years at Pagham, took great joy in beating his old club and his squad of 16 players featured 11 ex-Lions.

The scalp over their third-place opponents moves Wick up to 13th in Division 1 of the County League, and Block said: “You know what they have and it’s a lot at our level, but money can’t buy the team spirit we have here, and that was evident last night.

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“A lot of people there don’t like me and I don’t like them, so it made my night to go over there and beat them.”

A disappointing first half saw Wick go in trailing to a Julian Boniface own goal, and Block read the riot act at half-time to which his side responded.

Michael Asare came off the bench for a 20-minute cameo before twinging his original Achilles injury, but that gave Wick the spark they needed.

After the break, a defensive error from Pagham let in Andy Brown, whose shot came back off the bar, but Frangou marked his return to Nyetimber Lane by netting from a free-kick into the box.

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With five minutes left, the match came alight as Hunter scored against his old side with a sublime header, then a minute later Turner made it 3-1.

Pagham were not finished there, though, and a free kick flew into the net through a mass of bodies, but Wick managed to hold on.

Block added: “I’m very pleased and it’s very rewarding to beat another top-three side in a match I bet a lot of people thought we wouldn’t get anything from.

“We were poor in the first half, very poor, and I really wasn’t happy with the performance. We showed them too much respect, stood off them and let them play.

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“There were words at half-time, and they knew they had let themselves down. But they had to be told and I wanted to get a reaction, which is exactly what happened.”

Block also had special praise of Asare who he believed changed the game with his second-half appearance: “He brought a spark to us and helped change the whole game. He’s quick and skilful and they didn’t know what to do.”

WICK: Kason; Urquhart, Boniface, Hotson, French; Hunter, A.Brown, Towers, Baggura; Turner, Frangou. Subs: Asare (A.Brown 60), Maynard (Asare 85), R.Brown,Wilkins, Peach.