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| Saturday 22 March 2003 East Court FC 4 Village of Ditchling III 0 AFTER last week's disappointing semi final defeat in the Malins Cup, East Court FC returned to winning ways, and to the top of the Mid Sussex Football League division 7, with victory over Village of Ditchling III on Saturday (March 22). It was not the greatest of performances from the home side but on a bumpy Imberhorne pitch East Court quickly got among their opponents. Early, but difficult, chances fell to Billy Denyer, James Salter, Mark Nolan and captain Simon Nickols but they failed to test the Ditchling keeper. Then Salter broke free from the Ditchling defence after a pass from Denyer and calmly rounded the keeper to give the home side the lead. Soon after Nolan's through ball caused a mix up between two Ditchling defenders. Salter was presented with another one-on-one and again he went round the keeper before slotting home. Ditchling had a few chances in the first half. An effort from a forward went just over the bar and another player shot wide after East Court failed to clear the ball. East Court dominated the second half, and created some decent chances. Ross Kelly's sweetly struck shot just cleared the bar and a series of one touch passes between Nolan, Salter, Kelly and Simon Nickols resulted in a through ball to Denyer who missed the target. Ditchling tried to push forward and player-manager Daniel Medcalf, Martyn Bishop and James Nickols had to made a number of timely interventions. Tireless running on the right from man-of-the-match Duncan Bewley, who was making his debut, caused the Ditchling defence no end of problems. On the left Carl Buckler put in a number of important challenges. Salter completed his hat-trick with a well taken shot after being set up by Simon Nickols. Denyer rounded things off when Simon Nickols put in East Court's top scorer and he rifled his shot past the Ditchling keeper. Team: P.Bishop, D.Bewley, C.Buckler, M.Bishop, D.Medcalf, J.Nickols, S.Nickols, B.Denyer, R.Kelly, J.Salter, M.Nolan |