WICK LOSE OUT ON TITLE TO CROWS

The West Sussex Ambulance Service certainly knew the way to Crabtree Park as they had been called only 20 minutes earlier to taxi fellow Wick midfielder Marc Cooper to A&E following ankle ligament damage.

Before the second half trouble, Crowborough had taken command. It took them just three minutes to open the scoring as a Tony Miles mistake let in Dave Adams who drew out keeper Simon Davey before slotting past him.

With much at stake the half became extremely stop-start until the visitors doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time. Poor Wick marking left Adams free once again and his headed knock down found Danny Baker, who had the freedom of the Wick penalty box to turn and smash home.

This left Wick boss Andy Gander with much to say to his side during the half-time break. Only a victory would have been good enough for Gander's men to keep their title dream alive so three second half goals was the order of the day.

The home side certainly gave it everything after the interval, dominating from start to finish. Substitute Jan Miller formed part of a three-pronged attack with the impressive James Bennett and Danny Curd which turned the flow of the game.

After good build up, Miller's lay off found Curd who slammed home his 26th goal of the season on 60 minutes. Seven minutes later the scores were level after excellent work from Dave Sharman down the left. His cross forced Crowborough defender Dave Meek to horrendously slice into his own net, bemusing the whole ground.

After the equalising goal, trouble flared. With temperatures rising following the elbowing incident, Wick's man of the match Hassan Yassan took his protests to referee John Pike too far and saw a straight red for dissent.

With time running out Wick carved one last fantastic chance. Miller's cross found Curd but just as his header looked destined for the bottom corner, Crowborough stopper Kush Movaffagh produced a smart save.

The final whistle brought the championship for Crowborough but few handshakes were exchanged as the medals were given out.

Disappointed Wick boss Andy Gander later said: "Giving two silly goals away gave us a mountain to climb in the second half.

"Full credit to the lads, though, they came back superbly and should have won the game. Our target was to get promoted and that's exactly what we've done.

"Everyone's really looking forward to next year in Division 1 and my job now is to bring in a few new faces to strengthen the squad for the challenge ahead."

WICK: Davey; Howcroft, Miles, Woolmer, Sharman; Hunt, Cooper, Yassan, Morrow, Manton; Curd. Subs: Miller (Howcroft 45), J.Bennett (Cooper 55), Christodoulou (Morrow 80), Howard, S Bennett.