Crowborough put in a good performance and can consider themselves unlucky that only one of three strong appeals for penalties were given.

Pagham started the afternoon the liveliest and took the lead after 3 minutes when Nathan Mills nodded in from a corner. He had the chance to double the lead a minute later when he beat the offside trap and was clean through with only Ben Head to beat in the Crowborough goal however the Crows stopper pulled off a great save with his outstretched foot. After this the match swayed in favour of the Crows as Forward, Taylor and Sam Saunders started to take control of the centre of the park and it was no surprise when the in form Tom Saunders looked like an equalizer was a formality. A long ball came over the top and it was a race between Saunders and Simpson in the Pagham goal ; Saunders won the race with ease and he nodded the ball past the Robins stopper ready to side foot in the goal only for Simpson to continue with his charge that completely took Saunders out, to everyones amazement the referee, who was ironically being assessed let play continue with Saunders lying in a heap on the floor. Not only were the Crows denied what looked like a stonewall penalty but with Simpson being the last man the Robins could have been down to ten. To their credit the Crows continued to dominate the half and on 35 Nathan Millroy didn’t quite connect properly when only 2 yards out and a grateful Pagham defender knocked the ball off the line. Crowborough conceded for the second time right on the half time whistle when a Crows attack was broken up and ex Brighton defender Lee Cooper scored from the edge of the box with a screamer that Head did well to get a hand to.

The second half was much of the same: mainly Crowborough possession but in truth not that many clear cut chances created. On 82 minutes the lively Thompson raced clear of his marker and was unceremoniously taken down by a rash challenge from Hassocks sub Andy Whittingham. This time the Ref pointed to the spot and that man Tom Saunders made no mistake by slamming the ball in the back of the Hassock’s net. Five minutes later Saunders was in the thick of it again when he was hauled down in the area from behind but the referee waved play on; Saunders was incensed but all his protests got was a place in the referee’s little black book to round off an afternoon that on another day could have produced an awful lot more.

MOTM: Jon Trotter