Wet weather leads to Lancing revisit

Lancing FC 1 Loxwood 0, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Saturday 19^th October 2019

After a week of heavy, at times unrelenting, rain, the choice of venue for this weekend’s match was made with half-an-eye on the weather.

With Saturday morning pitch inspections being scheduled throughout Sussex, there was simply no way I wanted to risk arriving at a ground only to discover the game had been called off.

Therefore, a re-visit to Lancing’s 3G surfaced Culver Road Stadium – the home of the Sussex County Football Association HQ – was ultimately decided upon, for the SCFL Premier match between high-flying Lancing and bottom-of-the-table Loxwood.

In truth, the weather wasn’t the only factor behind my decision. Had it not been for the fact that wifey was attending a course of some description (she did tell me what it was about, but I wasn’t listening) meaning I had our two boys for the afternoon, then I probably would have looked to attend an FA Cup qualifying match a little further afield. Whyteleafe’s match against Chippenham had looked promising.

However, the thought of a two-hour plus round trip with my two little bundles of joy constantly bickering in the back seat of the car frankly just didn’t appeal.

Lancing it was then.

Still, given my previous visit to Culver Road had yielded seven goals (click here for details of that game and of the ground itself) and matches featuring Lancing and Loxwood had so far produced a grand total of 83 goals in a combined 22 games this season, I wasn’t at all disappointed by my slightly enforced choice.
The fact Lancing were offering a special ‘all under 16s go free promotion’ for this game, only served to confirm that I’d made a good decision.

We arrived at the ground just after 14:30. Entrance was £6 for the three of us (bargain) and £2 for a programme.

It appears that Lancing have taken a slightly different approach to programmes this season. Rather than producing one for each match, they are seemingly producing one ‘monthly magazine’ which then has a folded printed A4 insert within it, featuring the teamsheets for the relevant game and a brief history of that day’s opposition.
While I have no problem with this approach whatsoever, and can totally see how it would make financial sense for teams at this level, one small change I would make would be an updated league table included on the insert. League standings can change dramatically on a week-by-basis so the table printed in the ‘magazine’ has the potential to look very different come match-day. Especially for matches played towards the end of the month.    

Having quickly dispensed of a delicious burger that I’d treated myself to having not had time for lunch after my morning coaching commitments (it’s hard this childcare lark), I bumped into Loxwood’s coach Nathan Bowen – a former sometime colleague at 5Ways Soccer School. Following a quick chat where he bemoaned the lack of luck his struggling side had endured at times this season, he rounded off our conversation by guaranteeing me that I should expect to see goals this afternoon.

All the signs were pointing to a thriller. The sun had even made a rare appearance. Suddenly – and against all odds given the preceding weeks’ (in fact, that morning's) wet and wild weather – it was a perfect Autumnal afternoon for football.

Unfortunately, the game didn’t follow the signs.

Loxwood started the game brightly and were almost handed an early gift when Lancing’s goalkeeper Taylor Seymour carelessly gave away possession outside his area (not for the last time during the afternoon it has to be said) but the Loxwood attacker was too eager to get to the ball and ended up conceding a needless foul.

Soon after, Lancing began to gain control of possession and were it not for a bout of heroic defending from the Magpies’ defence, where a series of shots from the Lancers were blocked in quick succession, the hosts could have been in front.

In the 25th minute, Lancing then appeared to have a great shout for a penalty as the influential Kane Louis looked to have been brought down in the area. Not only did the referee disagree with this call, he actually booked Louis. I assume for diving.
It should be noted here, that the referee had already informed both benches that he was struggling with an injury and probably wouldn’t last the game. Indeed, he was replaced by one of his assistants at half-time with a qualified (I assume) member of the crowd taking up flag duties. Maybe this goes someway to explaining some of the baffling decisions that were made during the first 45 minutes, which had both benches up in arms at various intervals.

While Lancing continued to control possession, Loxwood continued to defend stoically, keeping the league’s top scorer Lewis Finney relatively quiet.

In fact, it was the visitors who went closest to going into the interval ahead. Seymour was once again caught far from his goal, but Sam Karl’s lofted effort was brilliantly headed off the line by Alex Bygraves.

Despite the relative lack of goalmouth action, the small band of young Lancing ‘ultras’ were still finding plenty to sing about, and were clearly enjoying ‘bantering’ with Loxwood goalie Tyler D’Cruz, who seemed to take it all in good spirit.

I’ve mentioned this a few times in various posts on this blog, but it’s great to see youngsters at some clubs really starting to get involved in supporting their local team, and doing their bit to create something of an atmosphere. Well done.

The second half continued in the same way the first had progressed. Lancing dominating possession and territory, but unable to find a way through the Loxwood backline. In fact, with an hour of the game gone, D’Cruz had barely had a save to make.

Then came five minutes which ultimately settled the game and perfectly highlighted the lack of luck that Nathan Bowen had mentioned to me earlier.

First, Lancing completely switched off at a free-kick, allowing Loxwood’s Luke Brodie to bring the ball down in the area and smash an unstoppable shot goalwards, only for the ball to crash into the crossbar and bounce away to safety.

Within minutes, Lancing were ahead. In fortuitous circumstances. A Lancer’s corner may have been flicked goalwards by Louis (who was kind of credited with the goal on Lancing’s Twitter feed) but it certainly rebounded off at least two hapless Magpies defended before ending up in the back of the net. It was a cruel, cruel blow for the visitors. Not that the home side’s players, management or ‘Ultras’ cared a jot.

Loxwood tried to get back into the game, launching a couple of dangerous set pieces into the Lancing area which were well defended each time, but in truth Lancing brilliantly took the sting out of the game, by continuing to boss possession.

While they still failed to create too much in the way of goalscoring opportunities, they ultimately didn’t have to. The damage had been done. Loxwood’s luck was to be out once more. Eleven games in and they remain winless in the league. On this evidence it’s hard to see how this is the case.

Lancing, meanwhile, do all they can to keep pace with the Eastbourne Town juggernaut at the top of the table. In my pre-season predictions, I’d suggested that Lancing could be in for a much better season than their last campaign. I think it’s fair to say that I underestimated just how much better it could end up being.

So, while this game was not quite the thriller that I’d been anticipating, at least it didn’t rain and I didn’t have to spend too long in the car on the way home listening to my kids arguing over whose fault it was that the youngest’s hat had got so filthy.

Sometimes, you just have to take the positives where you can find them!

Enjoyed this blog post? Then you may be interested in reading my kindle book which recounts my 2018/19 groundhopping journey (take a look, it’s only 99p).