Littlehampton Reserves             1-2          Upper Beeding
 
 

Manager Mick Barry was forced to shuffle his pack for Beedings first game
since October 14th last year when, Jamie Ireson, Steve Barber and Lee
Strange (work commitments) and Gary Salter (ill)became unavailable for this
Vernon Wentworth 1st Round cup tie at Littlehampton last Wednesday evening.

In came Veteran Vic Gretton for his first start of the season, with Wayne
Potbury also making his first appearance. 19 year Old Glyn Edmonds came in
at right full back with 17 year old Lewis Partridge switching to the left
and Darren Jordan partnering Gretton at the centre of the back four.

And what a start Beeding had. From the kick off, Dave Smith found Potbury on
a surging run down the right. The skillfull striker turned his man and laid
the ball into the path of Paul Barker who cooly chipped the Littlehampton
keeper from 25 yards. 20 seconds in - One Nil.

Littlehampton came back into the game but seldom troubled the impressive
Gretton at the heart of Beedings defence. That was until the referee
inexplicably awarded a penalty after a Glyn Edmonds tackle where the young
defender had obviously played the ball and the linesman was also wildly
flagging for a penalty.

Scott Redfern had no chance with the ensuing penalty and the half ended at
one apiece with Littlehampton in the assendency despite Matt Doos chipped
effort which was disallowed following avery late linesmans' flag.

Barry weaved his old magic during the interval and his side emerged into the
rain and mud re-juvinated and, with skipper John Burgess, Barker, Smith and
Mark Salter all terriers in the middle of the park, Littlehampton again ran
out of ideas to break dwn Beeding. Doo and Potbury were running
Littlehamptons' back four ragged and from a series of desperate fouls
Potburys' 25 yard free kick curled just over, Salters' from a similar
distance smashed against the crossbar and Potbury again just failed to get
onto the end of another Salter drive.

Beeding took the lead with twenty three minutes remaining. Potbury running
onto Salters' through ball and Smith finishing crisply at the near post.

As the ground became heavier, the home side threw caution to the wind and
went to a 3-4-3 formation. Barry brought on his son, 17year old Stuart for
Doo and 18 year old Matt Gray for the excellent Partridge (calf strain) and
the Littlehampton became Beedings' second County league reserve section
scalps in successive games.