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| Saturday 01 April 2006 East Court 4 Wealden III 2 East Court ended their home campaign with a win after coming from behind to beat a resiliant Wealden side. After last weeks defeat to Dormansland Rockets Paul Bishop came in for Daniel Lamprell in goal and Nick Palmer returned to the back four. Simon Nickols was pushed into a central midfield role with Lee Champion partnering Ross Kelly up front. Top scorer Billy Denyer was demoted to the bench to rest an ongoing ankle injury. The home side started the brighter of the two sides without creating too many clear cut chances as they struggled to beat the Wealden offside trap. The first time they did it was 1-0, left winger Carl Buckler raced onto a throughball from Champion and found himself one on one with the opposing keeper. He made no mistake to put the home side one up. From that moment until half-time East Court slipped back into bad habits and Wealden took control of the game. Time and again Wealden threatened to break through, Bishop had to save with his legs and Medcalf had to be alert to block a goalbound shot after Bishop had been beaten. It was only putting off the inevitable and by half-time the visitors led 2-1. First a midfielder lost his marker and raced onto a bouncing ball in the area and fired it first time into the back of the net. Then Wealden broke away and their striker found himself through on Bishop. Bishop came out to narrow the ankle but the ball was dispatched past him into the unguarded goal. At half-time right winger Ben Sunderland was replaced by Denyer with Champion dropping into centre midfield and Richard Hayes moving to right wing. Within a minute of the restart it was 2-2. Nickols freed Hayes down the right and his attempted cross flew over the keeper into the far corner of the goal. Soon after the home side should have been in front when Denyer ran from half way but his shot flew over the bar when he should have done better. East Court continued to push on but were struggling to break down a resolute Wealden defence. Eventually they got their reward as Denyer made amends for his earlier miss. A corner was half cleared and the ball was picked up by substitute Lamprell and played the ball into Denyer in the box, his clever turn gave him time to pick his spot and put the home side in front. With Wealden now beginning to tire East Court looked the team more likely to score again and that's exactly what they did. A Wealden corner was cleared to half way and the hosts got up to put the visitors under pressure to force a throw down the left. The ball was thrown in and found its way to Kelly on the left side of the area, his cross found Hayes arriving fast at the far post to score his second goal of the game and seal the victory. Team: P.Bishop, A.Wright (D.Lamprell), N.Palmer (C.Butler), R.Hayes, D.Medcalf, A.Shillibeer, B.Sunderland (B.Denyer), S.Nickols, R.Kelly, L.Champion, C.Buckler |