Late free kick hands victory to Wick

Wick 1 Selsey 0, SCFL Division 1 Challenge Cup Quarter Final, Tuesday 19^th February 2019

I do love half-term weeks.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, having to entertain the kids for a whole week is nothing short of a nightmare (not to mention expensive), and my work productivity definitely suffers when they’re around. But the school holidays also mean no football training for the eldest on Tuesday evening which gives me the ideal opportunity to sneak an extra groundhopping game in.

Extra football and an escape from the nightly ‘fun’ ritual of having to put the kids to bed? It’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned.

A quick glance at the local fixtures revealed that while I’d already visited most of the home teams playing on this particular Tuesday evening, there was one ground I hadn’t yet visited; Wick’s wonderfully named Crabtree Park.

So instead of spending Tuesday evening standing in the cold on the side of a football pitch in Brighton watching my eldest train, I instead spent my Tuesday evening standing in the cold on the side of a football pitch just outside Littlehampton watching Wick take on Selsey in the quarter-final of the SCFL Division One Challenge Cup.

Both were teams that I’d had my eye on watching for some time. Selsey’s recent brilliant form (just one defeat since the start of November prior to this game) has seen them rocket up the league table and give them a slim chance of reigning in the division’s runaway top three. Meanwhile Wick are a team I remember from my childhood for being one of the top teams in Sussex back when I started getting into county league football in the early 1990s as a regular spectator at Newhaven. Plus I love the name of their ground!

The only slight hesitancy I had about making the journey west, was the match’s potential for extra-time and penalties. Such an eventuality would probably mean the game wouldn’t finish until around 22:30, meaning I wouldn’t get home until close to 23:30. These days, it’s been so long since I stayed out that late on a school night (for me anyway, damn those pesky, lazy kids) that I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d turn into a pumpkin or something after 23:00. I left my house desperately hoping that I wouldn’t have to find out whether this would be true or not.

As I caught my first glimpse of Crabtree’s Park’s floodlights some half-a-mile away from the ground (according to my SatNav), I couldn’t help but bemoan the fact that my son has to train on a Tuesday night. I don’t know why, but there’s something about attending midweek football matches under floodlights that I’ve loved ever since I was a kid. It’s a real shame that I don’t get more opportunity to get to more midweek matches. If only more games took place on Wednesday nights!

Admission to the game was £5, and although there was no program due to this being a rearranged game (the previous match had been abandoned under a deluge of rain a couple of weeks ago) I did manage to source one from Wick’s previous home game against Billingshurst from the friendly lady in the coffee hut.

Crabtree Park has to be one of the better SCFL Division One grounds that I’ve visited. With two covered stands on either side of the pitch, a pleasant clubhouse and a great enclosed location, it’s not hard to imagine this facility being used to host games at a higher level.

It’s also a friendly club. One of the supporters even took the time to come and speak to me before the game, and give me a little background information about the team and the facility. Good to meet you Trevor.

As with the game I had attended to Saturday at Lingfield, it has to be said that this match won’t go down as a classic. Not that it was a particularly bad match, mind you.

It was certainly keenly contested, with a number of physical challenges taking place all over the park. Wick’s Chad Milner was particularly lucky to escape an early caution after a number of fouls on Selsey’s skilful winger, Callum Dowdell, in the early exchanges. This isn’t to say it was a dirty match. It wasn’t. Yeah, there were a few robust challenges here and there, but nothing untoward or over the top, and I have to say that on the whole I think the ref managed the game really well.

Chances in the first-half were few and far between. There were a number of half chances for both teams, and a few long-range efforts that were comfortably dealt with by each teams' goalkeepers.

Selsey, probably unsurprisingly given their recent form, looked the better footballing side, but a succession of poor final balls into the box continually let them down after they had worked their way into good positions.

In the second-half, Selsey stepped up the pace of their game and started to exert increasing amounts of pressure on the Wick defence. However, while stats would have shown that the visitors held a clear territorial advantage, they were still struggling to create any notable goalscoring opportunities.

In fact, it was the hosts who had the game’s first major opportunity midway through the second-half. Shane Brazil found himself through on goal, but a poor second touch saw him overrun the ball slightly and end up closer to Connor Kelly in the Selsey goal than he should have been. Under pressure, the striker could only hit the resulting rushed shot into the side netting.

Moments later, Selsey had their best opportunity of the match. A brilliant Tom Jenkins half-volley from an acute angle looked destined to nestle in the far corner of the net, only to thump off the post and evade the lurking visiting attackers.

By this point I was becoming increasingly desperate for either team to score. Not because I felt the game needed a goal (although it did, in fairness) but because I was increasingly dreading the looming prospect of extra time.

Yet as Selsey continued to attack, only to be rebuffed time and time again by Wick’s resolute defence, so I began to ready myself for an extra half-hour and the possibility of turning into a pumpkin.

Then, with the clock ticking towards 90 minutes, Wick launched a rare foray forward which led to one of their players being fouled right on the edge of the area. To be honest, it did look like the offence took place inches inside the area from where I was standing, but despite vociferous protests from the home players, only a free-kick was awarded. As it tuned out, there was no need for the hosts to feel aggrieved by the decision. Brazil stepped up and despite Kelly getting a hand to it, his effort nestled perfectly into the top corner of the net (see video).

The remaining minutes (of which there seemed to be loads – I thought the ref’s watch had stopped at one point) played out as you may expect. Selsey attacking, Wick trying to get the ball into the corner to see out time.

Eventually, the final whistle was blown and Wick had progressed to the semi-final of the Division One Challenge Cup. More importantly for me, I’d avoided a late night (by own admittedly pathetic standards).

Or so I thought.

For as I drove home along the A27, I was dismayed to find out that the road was closed in Lancing. I’m sure there were probably signs up about this closure, but needless to say I hadn’t noticed them. My diverted route along the coast road made me even more thankful that the game hadn’t gone to extra-time. That said, I did drive past the branch of McDonalds that had proved so evasive to my friend and I when we had attended a game at Southwick earlier in the season. So at least I definitely know where that is now.

Anyway, I did eventually make it home just before 23:00 so any potential pumpkin-related mishaps were avoided.

It’s off to Kent for me on Saturday, for the local derby between Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall in the Southern Counties East Premier Division. 

Looking forward to it already.