On a boggy Wish Park pitch CCK suffered a second successive defeat to Portslade Athletic. A scrappy match could have gone either way. Athletic triumphed 3-1 in a bruising encounter.
CCK were keen on revenge for the painful defeat from the weekend. They started brightly and could have scored in the opening moments, when Tim Virgo played the ball forward for Dave Jones. The attacking narrowly missed the target with a low drive. Mike Preston saw an early shot saved, as did Pete Coggan. Despite the state of the pitch, CCK looked to play good football and some of the passing was quite brilliant. At the other end CCK’s defence were withstanding the pressure despite the difficult blustery conditions. The quartet of Doug Reid, Jacob Fortescue, Mike Spence, and Ben Tucker also managed to cope brilliantly with the threat of Portslade’s long throws. Rob Woodward was also showing good composure, plucking corners and crosses out of the air. Dan Harden then was involved in a committed collision of tackles, leaving the winger with a severe gash to his right leg. He was replaced by Dan Shotton as the CCK side shuffled slightly. The conditions continued to scupper the quality of the game, before Portslade got a lucky break. Woodward had been showing such good handling before a moment of misfortune for the stopper saw his goal breached. A free-kick was struck goal wards by John Boddy, but looked comfortable for Woodward. Unfortunately the ball slipped through his grasp and into the bottom right corner of the net, giving Athletic the lead. The Badgers faithful hoped to inspire a similar comeback to that of their counterpart’s last match, during the half time interval.
It seemed the tide had turned during the opening stages of the second half, as CCK poured forward looking for an equaliser. They should have got one when Pete Coggan’s fantastic strike was tipped against the bar. As the keeper was left stranded the ball bounced to Dave Jones who stretched to attempt to divert the ball home. His effort rose agonisingly over the bar as he was left to beat the ground. The miss didn’t halt CCK’s determination, and they were on level terms within minutes. Dave Jones ran down the right and cut back onto his left foot shooting goal wards. The ball took a nick off a defender going out for a corner. Jones swung the corner into the net, via the fingertips of the struggling goalkeeper. The momentum was with the Badgers as they looked certain to continue domination due to the wind advantage. Mike Spence, Dave Jones, and Tim Virgo saw long range efforts saved or miss the target, before another good opportunity was squandered. The chance fell again to Jones. He latched onto as through ball, shielding it from the defender well before seeing his close range effort saved by the keepers’ outstretched foot. Then the wind died down. The pitch was so cut up it looked like a farmer had ploughed it. As the pitch got worse and worse, the game got scrappier. Scrambles and slides were the order of the day as players slipped all over the place. Portslade then stunned the Badgers when a goalmouth scramble was eventually diverted past Rob Woodward by Matthew Whittaker. CCK needed to go for it, and poured forward as often as possible. Mike Spence had two shots miss the target as the Badgers became more and more desperate. Gaps started to appear at the back as CCK searched for a lifeline. This led to another Athletic goal. They used the extra numbers as they counter attacked and when the ball was played to Robert Hunt, he made no mistake with a decent finish making it 3-1. Moments later CCK were put out of their misery by the final whistle. They will be glad to see the back of Portslade Athletic who are now guaranteed safety in Brighton’s top flight.
The rumour mill was in full force after the game, as Tim Rose failed to address the gathered media. The Evening newspapers went to print with stories regarding Rose’s future. Many anticipated a resignation. Chairman Dave Atherall confirmed that Rose was considering his future but not in regards to the remaining games of the current season. Atherall also said that Rose was travelling to Nottingham with some of the playing staff for a break following their recent dip in form, “Tim is our manager and has told us he will see out his contract which ends at the end of the season. In regards to an extension, both parties will discuss that at the end of the current campaign. We have sanctioned a short break for Tim and several players in Nottingham over the weekend to recover from a tough succession of games and we hope that will help them come back stronger.” That decision has been scrutinised by the tabloids who feel that allowing key figures at the club to miss a must win game against Ovingdean is a mistake, Piers Morgan labelled the CCK board a “joke” in his Daily Mail Column. Ian Wright’s column in The Sun was rather more supportive, with the Arsenal legend praising the CCK board for its value of “mental rehabilitation”. Man of the match Pete Coggan was keen to talk all things football when he spoke with the media, “It was gutting to lose like we did. The conditions weren’t great and the football was scrappy, but we had some chances and could have won. We now need to bounce back from these games, forget them and get the points we need to survive. It’s still in our hands.” Saturdays 6 pointer with fellow relegation battlers Ovingdean may turn out to be the most important game of CCK’s season as the pair are level on points. The Badgers fans will be hoping for a return to winning ways.
