Golds march on at the top of the league

As the autumn and winter months start to draw in along comes the slowdown in midweek matches. Granted it is the time of the year cup competitions in the lower reaches of the pyramid start to begin but slim pickings it becomes between now and Christmas.

Tuesday night didn’t throw up too many possibilities without dropping work in the afternoon so the choices were head to Horsham, fresh from their weekend FA Cup win, or stay very local and walk through town to see Littlehampton take on Broadbridge Heath.

The latter won as my football buddy for the evening in Steve Watson had a late finish at work, off to the Sportsfield where I’d been so many times already this season.

The Golds have had an impressive start to life back in the Premier Division of the Southern Combination with just one defeat in their opening fourteen league games and also putting in some impressive performances in the FA Cup against higher league opposition whilst the Bears have been on a very decent run themselves and having already seen them in action at Pagham earlier in the season I was expecting a fast flowing game complete with goals.

And there was no disappointment! The visitors were quick out of the blocks and with the hosts struggling to settle they took the lead through Charlie Parmiter after 12 minutes, no more than their early attacking play deserved.

However, with Joe Benn leading the line for Littlehampton and with over twenty goals already this season there are always going to be opportunities for efforts on target. Less than five minutes after the opening goal Town were level through Benn, finishing off a George Gaskin cross and a goal that seemed to settle down the home side.

As per the game I saw for the Bears at Pagham, playing three at the back allowed the full backs to push on, especially down the left hand side through Charlie Gibson. Town’s defence were just about doing enough to repel the ball coming into the box, both Parmiter and Jamie Taylor unable to fashion chances to restore the visitor’s lead.

Just as we seemed set for a level scoreline at half time, the home side went in front. A Gaskin free kick bobbled a bit in the box, but eventually fell to Benn who composed himself, sidestepped and calmly slotted the ball past Dan Law.

Heath started the second half the stronger as per the first, but Town settled more quickly this time trying hard to get the ball out wide on both flanks as often as they could and with the Bears trying to play a high line opportunities were starting to open up.

The flow of the game was only interrupted by the referee who was quick to whistle throughout rather than wait a second or two for an advantage to be played and this led to a niggly period mid-way through the second half trading fouls and yellow cards.

The Bears however came up with an equaliser 20 minutes from time, substitute Tyler Simonds hadn’t been on the pitch long but took advantage of a defensive mistake and ran through unchallenged to slot past Genty Poda.

The lead however lasted only three minutes as Town came back down the flanks, Dion Jarvis fed in down the left, crossing for Mo Jammeh to slide the ball home past Law.

The Gold should have made sure of the points twice within the final five minutes, Benn beat the offside trap racing through one on one with Law only to put the ball the wrong side of the near post while both Gaskin and Jammeh had chances themselves to put a more comfortable slant on the scoreline.

Town’s defence held firm through stoppage time as the crosses rained into the box from the flanks and numerous corner kicks but Heath were unable to muster another goal and Littlehampton hung on to move five points clear at the top having played a game more than most, but more importantly back to winning ways after consecutive 3-3 draw’s.

A very entertaining game which the visitors will feel they should have gotten something out of it, they certainly made Littlehampton work hard for the three points and the hosts will be pleased to get back on the winning trail once again.

Another impressive performance from Benn which should have resulted in a hat-trick, still scratching my head to work out how he didn’t hit the target! With over twenty goals already this season as mentioned he’s going to keep attracting more attention than he’s getting now so remains to be seen if the Golds can keep him at the Sportsfield.

Jammeh’s direct running and quick feet certainly caused a few problems in the second half and Jarvis became more influential as the game went on whether it was through the middle or on the left wing.

 It was probably the most nervy I’ve seen the home defence and from rough calculations it’s the sixth or seventh time I’ve seen them since mid-July, but at the same time there does always appear to be goals in the team to win games.

A break from league action for Littlehampton at the weekend as they face Moneyfields in the FA Vase, a trip to Lingfield awaits the Bears as they aim to get back to winning ways and push higher in the table.