22nd January 2011
West Hoathly vs Keymer & Hassocks
Div 2
K & H stumbled to a 2-1 victory at West Hoathly in a truly awful game of football on a very tricky playing surface
K & H struggled the first half seemingly unable to pass the ball to each other whilst WH had no such difficulty and were by far the batter side spending most of the time in K & Hs half.That said K & H’s defence coped reasonably well until a ball to the back post was headed unchallenged into the six yard area-Troy Raftery had to go for it as WH would surely have scored but he only succeeded in putting the ball in himself.Worse was to follow as inspirational skipper Ben Watson was sent off for a second yellow-he thought he had clearly won the ball but the Ref saw differently
For the second half K & H decided to go three at the back and with the slope now in their favour they enjoyed much more of the ball and were able to exert pressure on WH for a change but they struggled to create any clear chances until a mistake by a defender allowed Stuart Thompson to intercept a clearance and he was able to put Toby Raftery clean through-the excellent WH keeper managed to parry the shot and a defender tried to head it over the crossbar but it rebounded to Stuart Thompson whose effort was blocked again rebounding to James Harris who this time made no mistake
K & H redoubled their efforts to get the winner but it looked as though a draw would be the outcome until a free kick was awarded just inside WH’s half with only minutes to go.Everyone piled forward as iron legs Duncan O’Reilly stepped up to take it although the look on the K & H players faces suggested doubt he would be able to kick the ball hard enough to actually reach the area>But such doubts were dispelled as he despatched it with power and accuracy finding the top corner and although the WH keeper got a hand to it the force of the shot was too much and the game was won.
