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| Thursday 17 August 2006 East Court 3 Uckfield Town 5 East Court's pre-season preparations continued with what can only be described as a confidence boosting defeat on Thursday against a good Uckfield Town side. Uckfield's firsts play in the third division of the County League and even the seconds play a division higher than the Court but they were made to battle hard for the victory. Court made one change from the team that started against Cowden Mavericks with Andy Wright coming in for the holidaying Nick Palmer. Billy Denyer and Carl Zimmatore swapped roles as they did at half-time against Cowden with Zimmatore partnering Richard Hayes in the centre of midfield and Denyer playing alongside Ross Kelly up front. As expected it was Uckfield who started more brightly and played the better football. A couple of long balls over the top almost caught out the home defence but eventually the deadlock was broken by East Court striker Kelly. Uckfield had moved the ball about well up to this stage and seemed to be in control when East Court broke away down the right hand side. The ball was cut back for Kelly to slide it home to give the home side a shock lead. It wasn't to last long though as Uckfield reasserted their dominance on the game and drew level after East Court failed to deal with a long through into the box from the Uckfield right and the ball as headed home from close range. In the last ten minutes before half-time Uckfield struck three times to give themselves an unassailable lead. Individual errors from keeper Dan Lamprell and centre-back Mark Champion were punished and some slack marking at the near post from an Uckfield corner led to a free header flying into the back of the net. Although Uckfield had been the better side throughout the first half East Court had battled gamely and were unlucky to trail by so much at the interval. At half time Uckfield changed their players around and East Court were almost immediately back on the scoresheet.after Carl Zimmatore bundled the ball home from close range from a Denyer pass. As the second half progressed the game swung from end to end, Uckfield were creating better opportunities but were still struggling to create anything clear cut in the East Court penalty area. With about twenty minutes to go Adam Shillibeer replaced Kelly up front and straight away East Court scored. A long throw-in from right back Dan Medcalf was aimed at Shillibeer but a defender got his head on the ball only to see it loop over the stranded keeper and into the net for 4-3. Despite beginning to tire East Court kept pressing to try and score an equaliser but Denyer missed the best chance. After beating two defenders, he shot across the face of goal and could only look on as his effort crept narrowly wide of the far post with just the keeper to beat. With minutes remaining after an East Court attack broke down Ben Sunderland was caught in possession and was punished as Uckfield worked the ball into a central position and scored to make it 5-3. Despite the defeat East Court can be happy with the way pre-season is going. At times they managed to match the passing and movement of their higher-ranked opponents and despite having to work hard for the 90 minutes didn't let their tempo drop and they managed to keep pressing the Uckfield team. The form of Carl Zimmatore in central midfield is a real cause for optimism after losing Lee Champion in the summer to East Grinstead Utd. At times East Court gave the ball away too cheaply and were punished for not clearing their lines properly on occasions but there are still two weeks left until the start of the season to rectify these problems and Court can look forward to the new season happy with the way their preparations are going. Team: D.Lamprell, D.Medcalf, A.Wright, R.Hayes, M.Champion, S.Nickols, S.Moseley (B.Sunderland), C.Zimmatore, R.Kelly (A.Shillibeer), B.Denyer, C.Buckler (S.Moseley). Sub Not Used: P.Bishop |
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| Photos From Top to Bottom: 1) Team Photo Back Row (L-R): Ross Kelly, Mark Champion, Carl Buckler, Richard Hayes, Carl Zimmatore, Paul Bishop, Adam Shillibeer Front Row (L-R): Dan Medcalf, Ben Sunderland, Billy Denyer, Dan Lamprell, Simon Nickols, Stuart Moseley, Andy Wright 2) An Uckfield Town striker in possession of the ball with his back to goal, closey watched by Simon Nickols. 3) East Court prepare to defend a long throw into the box. 4) Andy Wright and Mark Champion look on as an Uckfield player heads on. 5) Ross Kelly chases a ball down the right hand side in a rare foray into the opponents half for East Court in the first half. 6) Billy Denyer prepares to do battle with the Uckfield right back to win an Andy Wright throw-in. (Photos 2-6 are supplied by Ben Sunderland) |