Goals are shared but not the points

Promotion contenders have a little too much

This weekend was another stay local day and a visit to another of the club’s I write programme column’s for, East Preston. They were the first club to be a customer and that has continued now for three seasons and closing in on 50 written pieces for the West Sussex club.

They certainly haven’t enjoyed much of the last couple of years, tough to attract players with no budget and when those around them are spending you have to find other ways to attract people into the club.

Relegation last season means the club rebuild takes place in the Southern Combination Division One for the foreseeable future and Shoreham were the visitors to The Lashmar on Saturday afternoon having made a fantastic start to their season as they also aim to return to the Premier Division.

The opening five minutes were all positive for the home side and then against the run of play of those first few moments, Shoreham took the lead. A slightly weighted ball over the top of the EP backline saw Harry Heath beat the offside trap and lob the on-rushing keeper Olly Eyres for the opening goal of the game.

The visitors doubled their lead on nine minutes, Lee Garnham heading the ball back across goal from a corner and the final touch looked like it went in off Levi Martin to leave the home side a little shell shocked.

EP should have had one back on 15 minutes, the perfect through ball from Matt Storm saw Sean Culley drag his shot wide of the far post as the home side started to get back into the game and on the half hour mark they reduced the deficit.

A whipped in free kick saw Storm get a touch, but the final one came off Shoreham captain Tony Timms and into the back of the net. Morgan Day then rattled the visitors crossbar a minute later as the home side piled on the pressure looking to level the scores.

The visitors were unlucky themselves not to restore their two goal lead four minutes later, Heath smashing the ball against the post but neither side could find the net again before the half time interval.

EP came out stronger in the second half and the equaliser came nine minutes in, an incisive break away from midfield set Culley away who teed up Storm from 12 yards out to level the scores with a fine finish.

At that point it looked as if the home side would go on and win the game, but the visitors worked hard to counter the change in shape from EP and grew stronger again as the half wore on.

Ten minutes from time Shoreham were in front again, Heath the architect this time as his shot bounced back to him off Eyres and his ball into the middle gave Marcus Richmond a simple tap in. They wrapped up the points in the 89th minute as Alex Fair slotted home from a corner to leave the home side wondering what could have been and the visitors maintaining their unbeaten run in the league and stretching it to nine games.

A great advert for Step 6 football in front of a very decent attendance of 152, EP will feel they should have gotten something out of the game, Shoreham scoring at the right times however and at times taking the sting out of the game.

Substitutions for the home side seemed to disrupt the flow of their game rather than help, some of those however needed but I felt if they had been able to keep the starting XI on for the full 90 minutes, we might well have had a different result.

Some good performances from Culley, Carl Bennett and particularly second half from Storm in EP colours, Heath was a constant menace for Shoreham and Richmond second half certainly gave the EP defence something more to think about.

Once again the club are serving more than just bacon rolls and there is a decent burger on offer which is always a good bonus for me, that secondary spend is all too vital for clubs these days.