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| Saturday 10 September 2005 East Court 1 Crowborough Athletic III 1 EAST Court dropped their first points of the season after a controversial late offside call denied East Court a second goal at Imberhorne School on Saturday. Crowborough brought a young side with them and although they lacked a physical edge their passing was crisp and quick and caused problems for the home defence throughout the first half as they got in behind the East Court wingbacks time and time again. It wasn't all one-way traffic though as East Court were busy creating chances at the other end and it was no surprise when, half-way through the first half, East Court opened the scoring. Paul Brice swung in a corner from the right hand side and Ross Kelly rose majestically to power his header past the visitors keeper. The lead didn't last long though as Crowborough came back into the game. First they had a penalty saved by Dan Lamprell after skipper Simon Nickols was harshly adjudged to have fouled in the box. It was a brief respite as minutes later a Crowborough striker found himself isolated against Adam Shillibeer and his extra pace took him in behind to fire home the equaliser. The second half was a tamer affair, the East Court defence of Shillibeer, Dan Medcalf and Nick Palmer tightened up at the back and gave away very few chances but East Court lacked a cutting edge going forward. Despite getting into numerous good positions the final ball always let them down until ten minutes from time. Lee Champion held the ball up in the centre of the park before releasing Medcalf to his right. Medcalf moved menacingly towards the box and found Billy Denyer on the edge of his box. Denyer rolled his man and with his second touch fired the ball into the far corner only to turn and see the linesman flag raised for Nick Clarkson-Tooze having strayed into an offside position when the shot was taken. Crowborough played out the final ten minutes without another scare and picked up a good point against promotion hopefuls East Court. Team: D.Lamprell, P.Brice (A.Wright), C.Buckler (J.Salter), A.Shillibeer, D.Medcalf, N.Palmer, S.Nickols, B.Denyer, R.Kelly, N.Clarkson-Tooze (B.Sunderland), L.Champion. Unused Sub: P.Bishop |