Peacehaven reach the top of the tree

Peacehaven dominated this Ryman South fixture at Piddinghoe to move to the top of the table. Despite the margin of victory the game started very scrappily, with both teams finding it hard to get the ball on the deck and play. Decent chances were at a premium early on and the first really decent chance fell to Haven’s top scorer Charlie Walker on ten minutes following a mistake by Worthing keeper Simon Lehkyj, but the home side’s hitman was unable to keep his effort down.

Most of Peacehaven’s best forays came down the left-side through the excellent Josh Jones, who was able to put in a number of telling crosses but they were well defended by the visitors. Worthing may have taken the lead on seventeen minutes had home skipper Ash Jones not been alive to the danger to make an excellent tackle on Lloyd Dawes. A couple of minutes later Walker set up Jamie Crellin at the other end but Lehkyj was able to save with his feet at the near post. At this stage in the half Peacehaven were beginning to show their superiority, but still without creating an awful lot. Worthing midfielder Kieron Panment, who showed flashes of real skill in the match, was fouled by the all-action Crellin for the game’s first booking and a couple of minutes later Panment found himself close in on goal but his shot was deflected onto Haven keeper Di Bernardo’s near post with the same player snatching at the rebound somewhat to find only the side-netting. But this chance was a rarity on what was an incredibly abject performance from the visitors. Into the last fifteen minutes of the first half, Josh Jones set up Crellin, whose shot from fifteen yards was turned around the post by a defender on the line. Haven winger Jones was a danger throughout and his link up play with Walker in particular was one of the highlights of the half. It felt like a goal for the home side was coming ever-closer when the resulting corner was clawed away by Lehkyj following a goalmouth scramble. Unfortunately for the visitors’ stopper, it was his mistake that would lead to the game’s opening goal. From a teasing Peacehaven cross he misjudged his punch, missing the ball altogether, leaving Craig Richards to prod in from five yards. And a matter of seconds later Tom Burton broke through from midfield, lifting the ball cleverly over two players before driving with purpose into the box and finishing well to put the home side two-up at the break.

The home side then took complete charge of the match early in the second half with two more goals in the first two minutes of the re-start. First of all Josh Jones set up Tom Lawley to curl a shot into the bottom corner, before Jones again spun cleverly on the edge of the box and played in Burton to claim his second and Haven’s fourth goal of the match. Worthing tried to find a way back into the game, but whenever they had possession it seemed as though there was always at least one or two Peacehaven players snapping at their heels, hungry for the ball. The rare pieces of quality for the visitors came mostly from Panment and full back Brannon O’Neil, the former skipping through a couple of tackles ten minutes into the second half, but any pace was taken out of his attempted shot by the resilient home defence and Di Bernardo was able to fall comfortably on the ball.

A scrappy period soon followed – the visiting defence not playing with any confidence now and causing their own problems at times with casual passes out from the back. Peacehaven were dominating the midfield area with Burton and Crellin both impressing, and there was only one team playing the football for most of the second half. Crellin had a decent chance on sixty-five minutes but drove over from fifteen yards. But twenty minutes from the end it was 5-0. Lawley’s well-flighted free-kick was headed in by Richards to complete a rare brace of goals for the defender. On seventy-eight minutes, Lawley again put in a delightful cross onto the head of substitute Wes Millis, but Lehkyj was equal to it with a good diving save.

As the match drew to a close you always felt that a sixth goal would come; but it wasn’t to be Charlie Walker’s day. Put clean through in the last few minutes he scuffed his left foot shot harmlessly wide. He pulled his jersey over his head in frustration – but he doesn’t need to worry for there are goals from all areas in this team. When the sixth did come it was an excellent twenty yard strike from Tom Lawley into the bottom corner. 6-0 it ended and the result – with Hastings not in action – put the Magpies back on the top of the table. And on this form, who’s to say they can’t be there in April?

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@RichMcQuillan