28th February 2009
Roffey II vs Keymer & Hassocks
Edgar
K & H travelled to play Roffey 2 feeling they were in with a reasonable shout of progressing to the semi final of the Edgar German Cup-given their opponents are a Division 4 side and K & H were able to field their strongest side.
As it turned out however Roffey were the classier side and repeatedly unhinged the K & H defence-creating 2 good chances once hitting the post before finally taking the lead when they broke clean through.Another effort looked to have crossed the line before Ian Smith hooked it away but the Ref was not close enough to call it.
K & H did create several chances of their own but each time fired straight at the keeper.
Turning around at 1-0 K & H felt they were still in it but Roffey were now far the better side never letting K & H settle on the ball whilst looking dangerous every time they attacked.Their second goal was however controversial as the scorer clearly pushed Dave Edwards over with his hands before collecting the ball and firing home.The Ref claimed it was perfectly fair-maybe compensating for the over the line incident in the first half.
K & H basically collapsed after this and it became a question of how many Roffey would score which turned out to be 4 although Dan Southcombe headed a goal bound effort over the bar and then earned K & H MOM by taking over in goal when Craig Jackson went off injured.They did have one chance of a consolation in the last 10 minutes when Troy Raftery came on and headed down for James Handford to score in an open goal but he kept up a worrying trend of late by missing completely.
The Ref was a bit unorthodox at one point saying he couldn't be responsible for Duncan O'Reilly's inadequacies when he claimed a foul.Ian Smith weighed in with a retort along the lines of the Ref not taking his inadequacies out on the players but he must have added an unsuitable adjective as he was booked.The Ref also shouted encouragement to the attacking side which of course was mostly Roffey throughout the 2nd half.
Roffey however proved a very capable side making a full strength K & H look very poor and they must be in with a shout of going all the way.
