The format was two pools of 5 teams. The winners and runners up of each pool progressed to a 4 way play off to decide who would play in the finals and go on to represent Sussex in the South of England Regional Finals.

Lewes were drawn in the tough group of the two with both Eastbourne and Mid Sussex to whom we had finished 2nd in the last two tournaments in earlier weeks.

The first game against Mid Sussex was always going to be the important one to decide group placings and the Lewes boys went out fighting. A series of attacking manoeuvres for the Lewes team got us close but no goal was forthcoming. The 2nd half of the game saw Mid Sussex pressing the Lewes goal but the Lewes defence, notable for its tight control held firm and the eventual results was a 0-0 draw. Now it was a game of numbers.

Next up was Hailsham, only able to field 6 in this 7-a-side tournament but a feisty 6 they were. They fought all the way but the numbers difference was always going to be too big. Lewes won 2-0 with goals from Oli Ingham and Oli Amos.

The toughest side to play were up next, Eastbourne. We had never beaten their full strength squad. Our tactical plan was for Alex Thornett to neutralise their strong but short midfielder, Hugo, which he did. Then it was the defence’s turn to keep their left winger, Ashraf from scoring. Unfortunately our plan was to fail and, as before, we lost 2-0.

Mid Sussex then drew against Horsham which on paper saw us able to nose ahead in the points if we could beat Horsham. It was a close run game with the sides quite evenly matched but 2 minutes from time Alex Thornett stole a goal and the 3 points were ours.

Our pool games over now all we needed was Eastbourne (who eventually won the coveted County shield) to despatch Mid Sussex and we would go through to the play off places in 2nd place. We watched the game in eager anticipation as the relentless Eastbourne battered on the Mid Sussex goal but seemed, on this one occasion, unable to find the net. A breakaway run for Mid Sussex and they scored, against the run of play and against the results to date. A tense few minutes remained where we cheered Eastbourne on but to no avail. Mid Sussex won and pushed Lewes out of 2nd place by one point.

Eastbourne 9 points
Mid Sussex 8 points
Lewes 7 points

The Lewes boys were dejected and deflated. A set of results that had on two previous weeks seen us achieve 2nd place at tournament had now relegated us to 5th/6th place play off.

Mid Sussex got their opportunity to play off against the winners of Pool A and have a shot at the final.

Lewes faced South Saxons in the final. Oli Amos scored a cracking goal with a beautifully struck ball and 30 seconds from the end Saxons levelled it taking it to penalty strokes.

Hailsham went first with a ball down the centre just off the ground which went in past Lewes goalie Billy Palmer’s hand. Next up Alex Thornett for Lewes with a push low and hard just to the keepers right to make it 1-1. Hailsham then fired one high and to the goalies left. An outstretched hand from Billy batted it down and Lewes had the advantage. Ben Battle next for Lewes and he put it in the exact same place that Alex had earlier with the same results. Lewes were now 2-1 up. Hailsham then put theirs wide securing Lewes 5th place.

Overall the boys and coaches were disappointed to come so close and miss out by such a small amount. Perhaps the boys were a little overawed by the importance of the games as we didn’t see the usual confident passing game that we’ve been used to. The defence was solid again conceding just 3 goals in 5 games which is a credit to Oli Loader and Toby Hutchinson and GK Billy Palmer.

Overall as a team we were reluctant to push forward in quite so many numbers as we had done previously. Perhaps afraid to leave the defence too exposed. Too wary of being caught out made us more cautious than perhaps we needed to be.

We were not as prolific in front of goal with 4 goals scored when last week we managed twice that, so perhaps the nerves were to blame. The shame is that with those performances in round robin tournaments we have finished so much higher in the placings and had Eastbourne finished off Mid Sussex as form would suggest they should it could well have been very different.

The boys learnt how to take failure on Sunday and pick themselves up from great disappointment to perform again in the play off placing game so credit to them for that and they finished with successful win.

Results: Played 5: Won 3: Drew 1:Lost 1. Not the results normally seen of a 5th placed side.

Team: Oli Loader (Captain) , Billy Palmer (GK), Toby Hutchinson, Alex Thornett, Dylan Williams, Ben Battle, Oli Ingham, Oli Amos, Henry Roser, Jamie Combs.

By Steve Loader