BBOB made it three wins out of three in this well fought performance, against a much improved (defensively) Royal Hove second team. It was an extremely cold day, the sloping pitch was poor and rock hard. Changes were made to the BBOB lineup, Dan Edwards returned to the first team at centre back with a very strong and commanding performance! Jamie Eade started up front with Adam (Skin) Craig, Dan Buchanan replaced Jac Edwards at left midfield and Chris Thomas returned to the first eleven in central midfield. The poor conditions were obviously the same for both teams and Royal Hove took advantage with their direct style of play early on as BBOB struggled to get any of their usual passing game going!
There were very few chances for either team in the first half but Royal Hove no doubt had the best one! A long Royal Hove ball fell between the BBOB centre backs to their main forward, he found some space and luckily his cross field shot hit the post and ball was cleared! The best chance for BBOB in the first half came after Howard Lloyd played left winger Dan Buchanan into space but his powerful strike was hit high and just wide!
BBOB started the second half the stronger, and within seven minutes of the re-start they took the lead! This time Howard Lloyd's clearance somehow found its way into the path of centre forward Jamie Eade, he managed to elude three defenders with his pace and place the ball beyond the Royal Hove keeper from about 12 yards out! From then on BBOB continued to press for a second, but had to wait some time! The BBOB goalkeeper, Craig Watson, had very little to do in the second half apart from shiver in the extreme cold! Chances to increase the lead fell to various players but the superb shooting display from the week before seemed to have been disappeared! Forward Adam (skin) Craig was replaced in the 60th minute by Ben Wheatland. Howard Lloyd broke late in the game, and with options ahead of him opted to shoot narrowly wide!
Finally in the 92nd minute BBOB doubled the lead to put the game beyond Royal Hove, the goal was all about Paul Barton's superb throwing. The right back threw the ball perfectly into the path of Ben Wheatland and he instinctively played the ball back across the six yard box to the unmarked Dan Buchanan who could not miss with the whole goal to aim at, his first goal of the season!
An UGLY win for BBOB! But another three points, which is all that counts sometimes! Another great positive was the first clean sheet of the season! Although I think Craig would have preferred to be a bit busier on a day as cold as that!!!
Match report by Paul Barton
