17/04/11: The Victory Club (0) v (3) Southwick FC
Scorers: None
Team: Swan (GK), Rodgers, Hudson, Davison (c) (Stores), Bunyan, Robson, Harding, Lamb (Lewis), Collins, Hunter (Fisher), Smiles
Unused Subs: None
Yellows: None
Reds: None
Southwick FC kept their Division Two title hopes alive with a comfortable 3-0 success over The Victory Club.
The Victory went into the game without Simon Mountford, who was away on a scouting mission in Germany, and were dealt a further blow on the morning of the game when Mark Dryden pulled out with a supposed ‘hamstring’ injury. In response to these absences, Lee Hermiston, recalled central midfield pair Graham Lamb and Anth Collins and moved Alex Rodgers back to right back. Given the Victory were playing at home in this game, Chris Fisher had no difficulty in finding the pitch this time and was named amongst the substitutes.
The Victory started the game on the back foot with their higher placed opponents stroking the ball around well in the early stages.
However, with around ten minutes gone it was the men in red who almost stunned Southwick by taking the lead. A Greg Davison long throw in was met by a firm header from James Smiles but the Southwick keeper showed excellent reflexes to push the ball away from right on his goal line.
Southwick responded as any top side would by nearly going ahead themselves. A smart turn and shot from the Southwick striker on the penalty spot forced Swan into a fine save diving away to his right.
Southwick continued to play some good stuff but they were struggling to breakdown a pretty tight Victory backline.
Then, as the game reached the half hour mark there pressure told as they scored the games opening goal. A neat passing move resulted in the ball being played to a Southwick player who was just inside the right edge of the box. He took one touch to settle himself before dispatching a fierce right foot drive across the goal and right into the far left hand corner of the net.
Just before the half time interval, the Victory had a loud appeal for a penalty turned down by referee, Dave Morton, when Smiles’ shot appeared to be blocked by the outstretched arm of the Southwick right back.
At the break, the Victory trailed by one but were still very much in the game.
Southwick remained in control but were still struggling to carve open the Victory defence.
A couple of mazy runs down the left from the puffy eyed hay fever sufferer, Scott Hunter, brought hope but on each occasion his attempted pull back was cut out by a defender.
With just over twenty minutes remaining and the game still delicately poised at 1-0 to Southwick, Lee Hermiston made his first substitution bringing on Jonny Lewis in place of the tiring Graham Lamb.
However, shortly after Lewis’ introduction, the Victory found themselves two goals behind and facing a mountain to climb. A long throw in was launched into the Victory penalty area and was flicked in at the near post via the underside of the crossbar by a Southwick player. It was not too dissimilar a chance to the one Smiles had early in the first period but unlike the Southwick keeper, Swan was not able to react quick enough to keep the ball out.
A double substitution followed with fifteen minutes left as Ben Stores and Chris Fisher were thrown on in place of Scott Hunter and Greg Davison as the Victory went in search of goals.
Sadly when the next goal came it didn’t come the Victory’s way as with a little under ten minutes to go, Southwick made the game safe as they went three goals clear. Anth Collins was harshly penalised for an unusually fair challenge about twenty five yards from goal and from the resulting free kick a Southwick player was allowed a free header and he made no mistake planting a firm header past a diving Swan and into the far corner.
Both teams continued to battle it out in the final minutes with Southwick twice being denied a further goal by the Victory post but as the referee blew the final whistle, Southwick could be pretty content at having secured an in the end comfortable victory.
While Lee Hermiston can be happy with the effort of his players, the gulf in class between the two sides was pretty clear for the large crowd of people watching to see. The Victory have little time to recover before the next game as they find themselves in midweek action this Tuesday evening at Thompson Park against Chaplins FC. The Victory will be hoping for a much better showing this time than they put up in the home match against the same opposition when they turned in a dire performance to lose 3-0.
