James Taylor reporting ...

The plan was a simple one. The 6’s were aiming to leverage a productive pre-season by flying into a balmy Costa-del-Eastbourne with a strong side; taking on the recently relegated Eastbourne 4’s pensioners and cruising back to Lewes with the points before they woke up from their afternoon nap.

As is normally the case with plans, things have a habit of going awry. Arriving at Saffrons, it became apparent that far from being pensioners, the Eastbourne 4’s were brimming with youth, fitness and skill. All anchored in the centre of the field by experience, including no less than an ex-GB international. This was borne out in the pattern-of-play in the first twenty-five, with relentless attacks from Eastbourne deflected and deferred by determined defence from Clivo, Jacob, James H, Pete & Tonks. When we did get the ball out wide and string a few passes together, we did look like threatening the Eastbourne goal. This was down to our strong upfront combo of Inzi, Reza, Rob & Seb, providing movement and guile as needed. As Lewes became wise to the Eastbourne pattern of play, we grew into the latter stages of the first half creating more possession and were able to catch Eastbourne too high up the pitch, creating a 1-on-1 for Inzi to dink a bouncer past the keeper. 0-1 to Lewes against the run of play! The lead was short-lived when Lewes gave away a penalty corner, only for Eastbourne to place a perfect drag-flick into the top left corner of the Lewes goal to go in all square 1-1.

The half-time team talk was positive all round, with team manager Callum encouraging his team for more. The midfield of Alan, JC, James T & Warren concocted a new plan to blunt the mobile Eastbourne midfield by channeling them wide. Once play restarted, the Eastbourne attacks resumed, and on 40 minutes an Eastbourne shot was adjudged to have been blocked by a Lewes foot and a penalty flick was awarded, which was duly converted. At this point it looked like Eastbourne could only convert from set pieces, while Lewes had higher probability chances from open play. By now, the heat was also playing its part, with the author having visions of a nice ice-cream on the beach. The ice-cream ‘vibe’ seemed to be catching as Lewes’s concentration seemed to lapse for 5 minutes….

On 46 minutes, Eastbourne had a more successful open-field attack, drawing an excellent save from our fearless leader, Kevin (in goal, no less!), however in the ensuring scramble in the D, Eastbourne slotted it home. This was followed by another Eastbourne goal at 50 minutes into low into the corner. The 6’s decided to pull ourselves back together and put up a more valiant fight for the remaining 20 minutes, holding possession better and spreading play with more finesse. In doing so, we created a few more chances and could have got 1-2 back. But it was not to be. All credit to Eastbourne for the win, they do play like a team who should not have been relegated.

A big thank you to the few 5’s we ‘borrowed’ as well as whoever brought the jelly babies!