Men's 1s vs Crawley 2

Hailsham 1sv Crawley 2s

HA TIER 4 R1

After being victors to Lewes on the road on Saturday …. Hailsham arrived on Sunday morning in high hopes, sore legs and few hangovers from the clubs social the evening before……

Crawley started the game with all guns blazing whilst Hailsham took a bit of time to adapt their tired legs and heads. Crawley took the lead from a scrap 6 yards out slotting the ball under the right foot if Jack Puttick. 5 mins later Hailsham conceded another goal from a back of the stick pass from the Crawley forward outside the D for them to deflect into the back of the net. 2-0 down Hailsham make a few slight changes to accommodate the strength the oppo had in store for us…..

Hailsham from then on came out the blocks with plenty of pace and possession in the hope of getting back into the game. In doing so winning short corners. In form Dave Antonia was there for a simple deflection past the keeper…. Josh Smith-Jones also managed to find the back board a few moments later. Now it’s game on!!!! 2-2 😎

Hailsham continued to hit Crawley hard with plenty of pace with Chris Hayes and Smith- Jones making quite a duo up front. The Sham were awarded a short corner where Humber calmly as you like slotted the ball into the top right bins with a drag flick. 3-2! Moments later yet another short corner awarded to the Sham and Humber fancied another go but slotted it under the keepers right arm making it 4-2 just before the break.

Second half started off with pretty much the same as the first half. Crawley managed to come back at us with a shot on target saved by the big man between Hailshams posts onto a Crawley foot for them to slot it past the keeper. How the officials didn’t see that I don’t know 🤷🏽‍♂️

Crawley were then awarded another short corner when Puttick put a glove to a shot which took a deflection on route… with ball still spinning after the keeper making a touch spun off the back line where the oppo were awarded a short where they bought the game back to 4-4.

From then on a few hard battles throughout the pitch which Captain Lee ‘Roiii’ Humber was given a very very harsh 5 minute breather.

The last 10 mins the Crawley keeper was also awarded a 5 minute breather for disagreeing with one of the officials. Hailsham used this to capitalise and used every last bit of fuel they had left in them. 6 mins to go and Sham were yet again rewarded a short corner from sheer pace from Antonia on the right. The young Jedi Josh Smith-Jones took advantage of Crawley have no keeper between the posts and with all the practice he has on Thursday nights on drags finds the bottom right corner to sign, seal and deliver the final result.

Final Result 5-4 to the mighty Sham who progress into R2 of the Tier 4 HA Cup.

Mom Josh Smith- Jones

Dod (which I don’t agree with at all in the slightest) Lee Roiii