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| Saturday 13 September 2003 East Court FC 8 Wisdom Sports III 2 FOUR goals from striker Ben Sunderland helped East Court thrash Wisdom Sports III at Imberhorne School on Saturday (September 13). But for 40 minutes the game could have been a different story as the home side found themselves 2-1 down and unable to put Wisdom's defence under any real pressure. Wisdom took the lead when one of their players nipped in front of the East Court defence before steering the ball past East Court keeper Andrew Mackie. East Court hit back when captain Simon Nickols was fouled on the edge of the box and Martyn Bishop clipped the resulting free kick in the bottom right hand corner. However, Wisdom went back in front when East Court failed to clear their lines and a forward nipped in to head the ball past Mackie. Despite appeals for offside the goal stood. Going behind for a second time finally brought East Court to life and Billy Denyer slipped in Sunderland who rounded the Wisdom keeper before slotting into an empty net. Sunderland scored twice again at the end of the first half to seal his hat-trick. First Martyn Bishop's shot was saved by the Wisdom keeper and Sunderland tapped in the rebound and then Denyer put the East Court forward in and he clipped the ball past the despairing dive of the Wisdom keeper. In the second half East Court continued where they left off and Bishop's burst from midfield finished with him chipping the Wisdom keeper from 30 yards. With a three goal cushion East Court started to pass the ball around and even player-manager Daniel Medcalf went on runs from defence to set up attacks for the home side. Sunderland scored his fourth after turning a Wisdom defender in the box and firing past the keeper. The East Court forward then got a huge round of applause as he was replaced by Chris Whiting. James Nickols also came on to replace his brother Simon. Denyer got on the scoresheet after getting the better of the Wisdom keeper in a one-on-one while Bishop secured his hat-trick with another fine chip in the top corner. Ross Kelly had chances to add further goals for the home side but his efforts were well saved by the Wisdom keeper. Team: A.Mackie, A.Wright, C.Buckler, S.Nickols (J.Nickols), D.Medcalf, T.Greig, J.Salter, B.Denyer, R.Kelly, B.Sunderland (C.Whiting), M.Bishop. Unused Sub: D.Bewley |