Men’s 2XI fight back from being 2-0 down to win 3-2

BEHC started strongly transferring the ball easily around the opposition, but against the run of play and a stoke city style long ball over the top caught out the BEHC defence to provide a soft 1st goal for mid-Sussex. Going forward mid-Sussex decided to play a half court press allowing BEHC to have plenty of the ball, but little to show for it due to a breakdown in basics. As the half time whistle went it saw BEHC walking off 1-0 down, but not out.

The second half started quickly but BEHC found themselves having to defend a short corner early on in the second half. A well-executed drag flick went right of the outstretched keeper, beating the man on the post and ending up in the back of the net. At 2-0 down the BEHC heads didn’t drop and this appeared to be the catalyst to ignite a BE come back.

It wasn’t long before BE started creating chances and the short corners followed, however, the routines were not yet clicking. After some silky play in the middle of the park and a well-timed tackle around the 23, the ball broke to the BEHC striker E. Thorogood who was quick to react and managed to squeeze/top his strike over a keeper that went to ground far too quickly. Not long after the restart BEHC had another short corner and it was a drag flick from J. Clarke which went to the keepers left, but the keeper managed to get to it and it almost got trapped under him but in the end it fell nicely for T. Dawson who was able to tap it past the keeper, 2-2 – game on!

After some spirited play mid-Sussex had a man sent off for a ropey tackle, but BEHC were not able to capitalise on them being a man down. However, it wasn’t long before BE had another short corner. This time, when the ball was injected to the top of the circle, J. Clarke made sure the keeper didn’t have a chance as he rifled it into the left side netting. Now all BEHC had to do was keep it together and see out the game, this meant mid-Sussex couldn’t sit back and they pushed forward a lot more as time was running out for them. A scary moment occurred as a ball managed to make its way to a mid-Sussex player unmarked at the back post but he scuffed his shot and BEHC were able to carry the ball out of danger. With minutes to go mid-Sussex broke past the BEHC back line which led to an agricultural tackle to breakdown play and a green card for J. Cosgrove. However, BEHC remained strong and were able to see out the game with 10 men and secure the 3 points.