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| Saturday 02 October 2004 Harbour View 6 East Court FC 5 (aet) DESPITE a hat-trick from Billy Denyer, East Court were unable to progress to the third round of the Sussex County Junior Cup when they suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday (October 2). On a windy afternoon in Hove, the East Grinstead side, sponsored by Herbert Sports, battled galantly from 3-0 down but were beaten after extra time. Ben Sunderland saw an effort hit the crossbar and that proved to be East Court's best chance of the first half. Harbour View went ahead in controversial circumstances when the ball appeared to go out of play and the home side took advantage as East Court waited for a whistle that never came. It was soon 2-0 when goalkeeper Chris Butler failed to hold a shot and the Harbour View player tapped in the rebound. Shortly after they added a third. It could have been more but man-of-the-match Nick Palmer, along with Adam Shillibeer, Martyn Bishop and captain Simon Nickols, put in some timely tackles. Player-manager Daniel Medcalf, forced to watch from the sidelines, brought Tom Greig on for Sunderland at half-time and switched to a 4-4-2 formation. It worked straight away as Ross Kelly pulled a goal back after good work on the right from Denyer. Denyer got on the scoresheet after Greig swung the ball in from the right and Denyer controlled it first time before slotting past the oncoming keeper. He then hit the equaliser after Harbour View failed to clear their lines and Denyer squeezed the shot home. By this point Nick Clarkson-Tooze had replaced Lee Champion and Paul Brice was on for Carl Buckler. The two substitutes had a hand in the goal that gave East Court the lead. Clarkson-Tooze was pushed in the penalty area and Brice sent the keeper the wrong way with the spot-kick. With five minutes remaining Harbour View equalised with a rasping drive from just outside the box to force extra time. Harbour View scored twice in the first period of extra time to leave East Court an uphill battle in the second half. Andrew Wright and Bishop pushed on forward to support the strikers and Denyer secured his hat-trick after Kelly's chip from the edge of the area was only parried by the keeper and Denyer volleyed the rebound past the defender on the line. East Court pushed on in search of the goal that would force a penalty shootout but sadly were unable to grab an equaliser. Team: C.Butler, A.Wright, C.Buckler (P.Brice), A.Shillibeer, M.Bishop, N.Palmer, S.Nickols, B.Denyer, R.Kelly, B.Sunderland (T.Greig), L.Champion (N.Clarkson-Tooze). Unused Subs: P.Bishop, Ja.Crittell |