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| Saturday 23 September 2006 Ardingly II 5 East Court 4 East Court were knocked out of the Stubbins Challenge Cup at the first hurdle as division 4 side Ardingly II took advantage of Court's wastefulness in front of goal. The visitors went into the game having opened their season with three impressive wins in their opening three games but put in a lacklustre performance all over the pitch. East Court found themselves a goal behind early on in the game when a slip in the visitors defence left Ardingly's centre forward clean through on keeper Dan Lamprell and the striker calmly lifted the ball over Lamprell into the far corner. Soon after Richard Hayes fed Ben Sunderland who cut inside and fired a left foot shot past the keeper to make it 1-1. Sunderland was involved again as Court took the lead. His right wing cross caused confusion in the box and Ross Kelly was pulled down. The referee pointed to the spot and Carl Zimmatore tucked the penalty kick away. East Court were struggling to break through the home side's well-organised offside trap and were left frustrated time and time again but eventually they got it right and Sunderland was freed down the right. His cross into the centre was finished off by Billy Denyer to give East Court a two goal lead. Minutes later it was back down to one as the visiting defence failed to deal with an Ardingly corner and the ball was fired into the top corner of the net. The second half started with East Court on top and creating a number of chances. The most notable fell to Carl Buckler who fired wide when presented with an open goal. This was to come back to haunt the visitors as Ardingly finished clinically at the other end to storm into a 5-3 lead. Ardingly were sitting back and trying to hit East Court on the break now and eventually the pressure told on the home team as substitute Adam Shillibeer pulled a goal back after a goalmouth scramble. Too often the final ball let the away side down and even when Court got it right they were unable to overly extend the home team's keeper. Eventually the East Court onslaught ran out of time as the referee blew for full time. Team: D.Lamprell, A.Wright (A.Shillibeer), N.Palmer, R.Hayes, D.Medcalf, S.Nickols, B.Sunderland, C.Zimmatore, R.Kelly, B.Denyer, C.Buckler Subs not used: P.Bishop |