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| Saturday 01 October 2005 Burfield Tyres 4 East Court 3 FOR the second year running East Court crashed out of the first round of the Sussex County FA Junior Cup in a high-scoring affair. Last year it was a 6-5 defeat in extra time to Harbour View of the Brighton and District League, this year it was Burfield Tyres from the East Sussex League who claimed the victory. They were, however, helped along the way as East Court self-destructed in the first fifteen minutes. East Court were on the defensive from the word go as Burfield pushed everyone forward in an attempt to get an early goal. It worked. Within minutes of kick-off Burfield had a corner on their right hand side, it was swung in and a Burfield striker rose to head the ball goalwards only to see player-manager Dan Medcalf clear it off the line at full stretch with keeper Dan Lamprell beaten. This only staved off the inevitable as moments later it was 1-0. Midfielder Lee Champion looked in no danger as he picked the ball up in the centre of the pitch half way inside his own half. Under minimal pressure from the Burfield strikers he went to stroke the ball back to the keeper only to step on it and let the centre forward through. One-on-one with Lamprell he made no mistake and put the home side in front. A second followed shortly afterwards as this time Andy Wright miscued his clearance back across goal into the path of a waiting centre forward who tucked the ball gleefully home. A third goal followed as East Court again failed to clear their lines from a corner. For the rest of the half the game ebbed and flowed as first East Court threatened only for Burfield to come back at them. It was East Court who created the best chances in this period though, Billy Denyer was unable to bring the ball down when put through, Adam Shillibeer flashed his header wide from Paul Brice's corner and Brice himself shot agonisingly wide from an acute angle when through on the keeper. At the other end Shillibeer was lucky not to be sent off after bringing down a Burfield player on the edge of the area as he advanced on Lamprell. East Court did manage to pull a goal back in this time when Billy Denyer was fed by Paul Brice The second half started just as badly for East Court as with Burfield's first attack it was 4-1. A throw-in on the right hand side was launched into the near post area and Lamprell was unable to cleanly catch the ball under extreme pressure. The ball dropped straight to a Burfield striker who tucked it away. The remainder of the game saw East Court pushing on in search of a way back into the game and leaving themselves short at the back. Shortly after Denyer had stuck again to reduce the deficit to two goals Burfield had a golden chance to kill the game but after sliding in in the six yard box the Burfield number nine could only lift his shot over the bar. East Court then had a goal disallowed before pulling back a third to set up a frantic last few minutes. Nick Clarkson-Tooze reacted quickest to a rebound in the area after an initial shot had been saved. It wasn?t to be and for the second year running East Court got agonisingly close to pulling back a three goal deficit against a team from a much higher division. Team: D.Lamprell, A.Wright, C.Buckler (B.Sunderland), A.Shillibeer, D.Medcalf, N.Palmer, S.Nickols, B.Denyer, P.Brice, N.Clarkson-Tooze (R.Kelly), L.Champion. Unused Sub: P.Bishop |