Chichester City 3 Hassocks FC 3, SCFL Premier League, Saturday 22nd
December 2018
I'll be honest. I've been putting my visits to Chichester on the backburner.
On numerous occasions this season I've glanced at the
fixture list and considered a visit to one of the city's two SCFL Premier teams
– Chichester City and Pagham.
However, each time I've decided instead to attend a game
elsewhere.
Now this is nothing against Chichester. It's a perfectly
pleasant picturesque city. One I’ve been to plenty of times before.
Partly my reason for not going and watching a game there so far this season has been purely down to logistics. On a normal
Saturday I don't finish coaching in Brighton until 12:45, so by the time I get
home (Newhaven), shower and get changed there's no guarantee that I’d make it to Chi in time for kick-off.
Largely, though, my hesitancy to attend a game in the
city boils down to one overriding factor. The A27. More specifically the
stretch of the A27 that runs from Lancing to Chichester. Put simply, I hate it!
I suspect that like many other Sussex residents, I've lost many
hours on this relatively short stretch of road, sat nose-to-tail in a seemingly
endless queue of traffic. One can only wonder what's going to happen to the
road once the long-heralded development of an Ikea in Lancing Is completed?
Probably best not to think too much about it. (On second thoughts, with that kind
of attitude I could probably forge a career for myself in town planning).
However, I'm determined to have visited all of the SCFL prem
grounds at least once by the end of this season, so traverse it I must.
And with my coaching commitments on hiatus until the New Year,
and with Christmas just around the corner, I’ve decided that this is the perfect
weekend to make my first trip of the season to the city. The way I see it, people
travelling to friends and relatives for the festive period are unlikely to be
doing so during the middle of the afternoon, organised shoppers (women) will
already have completed their gift buying, while unorganised shoppers (men)
won't be starting until Monday.
If ever there was going to be a weekend with little traffic
on the road, I confidently reasoned to my wife earlier in the week, then this
was it.
Somewhat amazingly, this admittedly rather half-baked logic
held firm.
I flew down the A27 with hardly any delays. Not even in
Worthing!
It's a good job I did, because when I arrived in Chichester it took me ages to locate Chichester City’s Countrywide Gas Stadium (formerly
known as Oaklands Park).
Well, that's not strictly true. I could see the ground. I
just couldn't work out where to park and how to access it.
Partly this was down to a shoddy performance from my SatNav
(continually trying to take me into a road turning that simply didn't exist)
and partly it was down to my refusal to pay for parking in a nearby pay and
display car park. I’m not tight, I’m frugal, as my Mum says (often).
At one point, totally flummoxed by where I needed to go, I stopped
off at the nearby Chichester rugby club to ask a lady there how to get to the
football ground.
Judging from the expression on this woman's face, you would have been
forgiven for thinking that I'd asked if I could urinate in her coffee rather
than enquiring where the football ground was! Suffice to say she didn't know.
Or didn't want to tell me. I couldn't work out which.
After driving around in a circle at least three times, I
decided to pull in at the tennis club to ask for directions, only to
discover that this was where the mystical entrance to the ground actually was. Hooray!
Paying my £6 entrance fee (and a further £1 for a small, but
informative enough glossy program) I was immediately impressed with the club’s
set-up. The CGS is a tidy little enclosed ground featuring a small-ish covered seated
area comprising around 100 seats on one side of the pitch, then two similar
sized covered terraced areas along the near and far sidelines. I was also
amazed to see a pitch that looked to be in really good condition, especially
given the deluge of rain that we’ve had over the past week. Conditions which caused the
postponement of a number of other matches in the county today. There was no danger of that here, judging by the playing surface.
From the off it was not hard to see why Chichester went into the afternoon's game against Hassocks sitting at the top of the league. They constantly looked to pass the
ball out from the back, and at times the visiting players found
themselves chasing shadows. I would go so far as to say that, after Hastings,
Chi were arguably the best footballing side that I’ve seen so far this season
(although it is admittedly hard to make too much judgement on the basis of just one
or two showings).
Yet for all their good football in the early stages,
Hassocks stuck doggedly to their task of soaking up pressure and looking to hit the hosts on the
counter whenever they could. The visitors certainly weren’t there to make up
the numbers.
However, around halfway through the first-half, Chi took a
deserved lead - although the opening goal came down to a slice of fortune. When
I watched Hassocks earlier in the season, they lost 3-0 at home to Lingfied – largely
because of two mistakes from their stand-in keeper (who was actually their
physio). Today they had a proper goalkeeper between the sticks, but it still was
his error which gifted the hosts the opening goal. A weak goal-kick fell at the
feet of Chi striker Rob Hutchings, and he took full advantage of the gift
(insert Christmas pun here) to put his side 1-0 up.
There was nothing fortunate, however, about the home side’s
second goal ten minutes later, with the impressive Gicu Ioedache beating a
couple of players before curling the ball into the top corner from the edge of
the penalty area.
At this point, I felt the best that the visitors could hope
for was to get to half-time without conceding another. Chichester were now well
on top and another goal would surely end the match as a contest. I doubted they’d
manage it, mind you.
I was wrong.
Approaching the 40-minute mark, a long ball into the
Chichester area was met by Phil Johnson, who took full advantage of some lacklustre
marking and hesitant goalkeeping to poke his side back into the game.
To the surprise of practically
everyone watching, the visitors – who’d barely threatened since the opening
exchanges) then managed to grab an equaliser before half-time. Good work from
Jake Lindsay, who worked tirelessly throughout, won his side a corner which he
himself took. The delivery was perfect and Harry Mills stole in unmarked to nod
Hassocks level (see video).
The second-half followed the same pattern as the first. Chichester
controlling possession,;Hassocks looking to hit their opponents on the break.
So when Chi retook the lead 15 minutes into the second half,
it came as no real surprise. Connor Cody (no, not that one) finishing off a
slick passing move which tore the visitor's defence to shreds.
Ten minutes later, Hassocks were reduced to ten men when
Dan Jaques was shown a straight red for a professional foul. In truth, I did
feel a degree of sympathy with the defender. It was clearly a foul (and by the
rules of the game a red card), but the striker did run across Jaques which
resulted in a tangle of legs. There was little else the
unfortunate defender could have done. I myself was sent off for a similar offence during my playing
days, so can totally relate to why he was so obviously unhappy by the decision.
So with the hosts already on top, and now playing with a man
advantage there could only be one outcome, right?
Wrong again.
The host’s failure to make their possession, numerical and territorial
advantage count (they were guilty of overplaying on a number of occasions when
they should have got a shot away) was to come back and haunt them.
With time running out, Hassocks substitute James Littlejohn
produced an almost carbon copy of Iordache's earlier strike (albeit
from the other side of the area) to earn his side an unlikely point.
At the final whistle, Chichester fans were left scratching
their heads at how they hadn’t come away from the game with the three points
that would have seen them cling on to top spot at Christmas. Instead, it’s Horsham
YMCA who will enter the round of Boxing Day Games in pole position, although there’s still a
long way to go in what is shaping up to be a close title race, with Newhaven
and possibly Saltdean, Pagham and Eastbourne Town also in contention.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I’ll be back
on the road next Saturday, due to family commitments Boxing Day.
Enjoy!
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