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| Saturday 20 November 2004 Barcombe II 0 East Court FC 18 Ben Sunderland scored five goals as East Court maintained their position at the top of Mid Sussex League Division 5, and greatly improved their goal difference, with a thumping victory at Barcombe on Saturday. From the first whistle Barcombe struggled to come to terms with East Court's slick passing and movement and the away side were deservedly 9-0 up at half time through goals from Ben Sunderland (4), Ross Kelly (3), Billy Denyer and Carl Buckler. Ben Sunderland fired East Court into a two goal lead before Ross Kelly scored a fortuitous goal from a weak Barcombe goal-kick. Kelly netted again before one of the best finishes of the half. Skipper Simon Nickols laid the ball off for Daniel Medcalf on the overlap and his near post cross was flicked across goal and in off the far post by the Kelly's head. After a further East Court strike the right-wing combination linked up again, this time a deep cross found Carl Buckler beyond the far post having peeled away from his marker and his header back across goal was acrobatically volleyed in by Billy Denyer. At half-time Kelly made way for Nick Clarkson-Tooze and Andy Wright came on for Paul Bishop, with Lee Champion taking over goal. Shortly afterwards, James Crittell replaced player-manager Dan Medcalf in defence with the lead already having been stretched to 12-0. East Court added a further 9 goals in the second-half through Adam Shillibeer, Sunderland, Medcalf, Denyer, Buckler, Wright and a hat-trick from super-sub Clarkson-Tooze. The fluency of the first half had been replaced by a hunger to score goals and much of the flowing football disappeared. Goalkeeper Lee Champion was left untroubled apart from one thumping drive from 30 yards that flew over his head and crashed onto the crossbar before bouncing away to safety. It would have been harsh on an East Court defence that was relatively untroubled throughout if Barcombe's only shot on goal in the 90 minutes had gone in Incredibly the margin of victory could have been even greater had it not been for some wayward finishing and a last-minute penalty which was missed by Nickols. It was East Court's fifth consecutive victory and their largest ever, surpassing the 12-0 mauling of Hartfield II in November 2002. Team: P.Bishop (A.Wright), D.Medcalf (Ja.Crittell), N.Palmer, L.Champion, A.Shillibeer, M.Bishop, S.Nickols, B.Denyer, R.Kelly (N.Clarkson-Tooze), B.Sunderland, C.Buckler |