Sidley stunned by nine-goal Albion

SIDLEY United were thumped 9-0 at home to a strong Brighton & Hove Albion reserves side in the Sussex Senior Cup.

The visitors, who included eight players with first team experience, were an absolute joy to watch but Sidley certainly didn't cover themselves in glory with their defending and distribution.

"I don't know if we were overawed," said joint manager Andy Laskey. "I just don't think we competed. Some of the goals we let in were soft goals I thought, straight through the middle of the defence. I don't think we showed them too much respect, we got caught watching them. We didn't look after possession and I think we could have perhaps got some more tackles in.

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"I thought there were some people who thought we didn't have a chance tonight anyhow. Realistically we weren't expecting to beat them but there are ways of losing games and the way we lost the game I'm not particularly pleased with. Some of them had a chance to turn up tonight and make a name for themselves and they didn't seize their chance. We were poor apart from Jimmy (Watson). You could put Jimmy in their side and he wouldn't have looked out of place."

But it wasn't all doom and gloom. The second round tie attracted 510 paying customers, bringing much-needed cash to the Gullivers coffers.

"I'm made up with the attendance," Laskey added. "They probably made a bit of money which is absolutely brilliant and if you said one per cent of those wanted to come back because they liked the club, liked the atmosphere that's five more supporters every week. It's a shame we didn't give them something to get behind us with."

But it would certainly do Sidley some good if they could learn one or two things from the way their opponents played. Full of pace, width, movement and slick passing, the Seagulls' attacking play was simply breathtaking and proved far too much for a Blues defence missing the injured Owen Ball.

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Albion were five-up in half an hour and barely let up with the goals coming from former Athletico Madrid player Maheta Molango (9, 30, 59, 74, 80), Jake Robinson (20, 22, 54) and Hastings-based Dean Hammond (23).

The pick of the bunch was undoubtedly Robinson's second when the youngster delightfully clipped the ball over Greg Thurstans' head and into the roof of the net from outside the penalty area.

The besieged Blues goalkeeper did, however, pull off two or three fine stops towards the end which kept the scoreline in single figures.

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