Peacehaven look doomed

With just four games remaining The Tye are seven points adrift of safety, but boss Micky Maskell has traced the club's current problems to the upheavels in the summer when a plan to draft ex-Brighton & Hove Albion youngsters to Piddinghoe Avenue backfired.

The ambitious scheme, to continue the development of players released from the Withdean, was designed by ex-Albion player Colin Woffinden, but the plans created a bitter rift between him and the established Peacehaven players.

'Colin basically lined the players up at pre-season training and told them that they would be better off looking for other clubs because Peacehaven were only interested in developing young players,' said Micky.

'A week before the start of the season he told me I shouldn't be picking these old journeymen footballers, so I asked him where all these Albion lads were and he said they wouldn't be coming over until the end of September at the earliest. I don't know if he just wanted me to take on teams on my own or what!

'We lost a lot of senior players and it was only through the efforts of myself and Jim Thompson that we managed to get a side out at all.

'We ended up having to go to the University and plucking a lot of players from there. If you take the Uni boys out of our side then we wouldn't have a team.

'Colin's idea was good in theory but he didn't carry it through and it left us in the lurch. He's an excellent coach and he should have stuck to his guns by working with the young players, then pushing them into our first team and then hopefully moving them out of the County League and on to a better standard of football.'

Since Christmas, as the side gradually became more settled, Peacehaven's form has steadily improved.

However, it appears to have come too late to save a club who dominated Sussex football in the early 90's.

'If we'd have beaten Hailsham on Saturday then we had a real shout, but once again we were robbed by the referee,' added Micky.

'Two of their goals were handballs and we were denied a nailed on penalty when Jon Lockhart was pulled down.

'In the end I had to take Jon off because that referee had sent him off four times previously and we didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

'Their manager, Brian Dennis, must have been watching a totally different game as well, because he said his side could have scored more goals.

'Our only hope now is for Arundel to keep slipping, but we need to win every single game now to give ourselves a chance.'

Peacehaven entertain Chichester City United on Saturday, followed by a crunch clash at Arundel the following weekend.