Dodd: We just need to keep working hard and results will come

Tuesday evening saw me and a couple of mates’ head to East Preston for their second league match of the season. For me a little unchartered territory, I don’t think I’ve been to so many games early on in a season when I’ve not been attached to a club, five so far and two more planned before we get to the end of the weekend.

This also marked the first home game where EP were using my paid for services, a programme article designed especially for them and a different one to be produced per home game unless they play two in a few days. They join Langney Wanderers as the second club on board for this and I’m open to any clubs reading this to get in touch, I can produce whatever you like for your programme be it in print or online and it just gives something more to read, I’ll add the email address in at the bottom of this.

Back to the matter in hand and East Preston vs Loxwood and of course some words from the boss Terry Dodd. EP went into the game on the back of a 2-2 draw at home to Little Common in their first league game at the weekend, having surrendered a two-goal lead.

Their visitors were aiming for their first points after a narrow 2-1 defeat at Saltdean and it looked from the first 20 minutes that back to back defeats were on the cards, Chad Milner scoring his second in two games to give the hosts the lead inside five minutes.

EP certainly looked the brighter of the two sides until Loxwood equalised when a bizarrely awarded free kick was despatched in the net on 38 minutes. I say bizarre because it appeared the referee dropped the ball for a re-start in the Loxwood half for them to play back to EP, a half-hearted lob forward fell short of keeper Keelan Belcher, bounced, and the return ball bobbled from a defender into his hands deemed a back pass by the referee with players very unsure as to what he had actually allowed to happen from that drop ball.

The visitors went into the half time break in front when EP failed to clear from inside their box and Luke Brodie slotted past Belcher.

The second half belonged to Loxwood with Fraser Trigwell not forced into a single save. Belcher on the other hand made several fine saves to keep his side in the match but two superbly hit strikes from Lewis Westlake, his second of the game and substitute Bradley Campbell-Francis gave the scoreline a very uneven look and leave Dodd’s side still searching for their first win of the season, but he wasn’t too disheartened afterwards:

‘Tonight was a bit frustrating, I thought for the first 30 minutes we were different class and had we got a second goal in that time I think we would have gone on to win the game, but all of a sudden we switched off and let them get back into the game.’

‘Keelan (Belcher) worked hard to keep us in it and we just need to protect him a bit more as he’s done well over the last 180 minutes. I thought Chad (Milner) coming off injured hampered us a bit because he was looking really sharp and was causing their defence all sorts of problems.’

‘I don’t think we’re too far away as a team, we’ve got the players to do well in this division, they just need to believe in themselves. It may take us a few more weeks but we’ll get there I’m sure of it.’

‘I expect us to head to Eastbourne on Saturday for the players to give it a real go, those sides are always strong, so we’ll be in for a battle but one we’ll be up for.’

‘I’ve made a couple more signings to strengthen us and give us some more bodies, both are available on Saturday and I have another two I hope to complete in time for next week as well, so things are looking a bit better, we just need to keep working hard and the results will come.’

To get in touch regarding any programme queries email me tkenterprises2019@outlook.com