Chance after chance goes begging.
Before the game if you had asked me would I prefer to be playing away at AFC Varndeanians or away at, shall we say, Eastbourne Town, I would have said away at Eastbourne Town. That is not a slight on AFC Varndeanians at all, just my personal opinion of grounds that have running tracks around them.
The Withdean Sports Complex is not the nicest ground we visit as all fans have to congregate on one side of the ground which affects the atmosphere and many of the seats in the stand have been used by the local seagulls as toilets for many a year and therefore, not that appealing to sit on.
None of the above though is the fault of our hosts either, the complex is owned by Freedom Leisure, and it would appear they have little interest in football or keeping the ground in a decent condition. From a pure football perspective, our hosts seem to have a young side with a sprinkling of older heads in defence, midfield and upfront. They had a young lad, Nealgrove, making his debut in goal at the age of 16 and it is safe to say he kept them in the game making some very fine saves and must have been their Man of the Match.
As for the match itself, the Crows knew it would not be an easy game and AFC Varndeanians would fight for each other and probably defend deep and in numbers, thus restricting the space behind the defence in an effort to protect their debutant ‘keeper. As normal in such games an early goal is important and right from the start the Crows took the game to the home side, Nealgrove having to make his first good save from Forster in the 3rd minute.
Unfortunately, that early goal never came, and I counted nine good efforts by the Crows that were either saved, blocked or missed during the first half, whereas the home side did not have one effort at Grant in the Crows goal, so at the break it was 0-0.
The second half carried on exactly the same as the first, Crows creating chance after chance, I counted 16 efforts either saved, blocked or missed in total, but they could just not put the ball in the net. As the game wore on you got the feeling that it may not be our day but with the home side not having their first shot on target until the 73rd minute, you felt the Crows would win if there was to be a winner.
It has to be said our finishing wasn’t as good as it usually is, and in an effort to improve that, substitutions were made at regular intervals but as we moved into added on time it was still 0-0 but then disaster struck in the 93rd minute, the home side made it 1-0 with a breakaway goal. We do know that the Crows never give up and in the 96th minute, Duncan, one of the substitutions, put the ball in the net finally for 1-1.
In the end a point is a point but with all the chances we had, it should have been all three.