Common riding high at top of table

Action from Little Common's cup game at home to Ringmer on Tuesday, last week. Picture by Simon Newstead

Last weekend’s thrashing of St Francis Rangers means the Commoners have scored 32 goals and conceded just four in seven Macron Store Southern Combination League Division One matches so far.

Common player-manager Russell Eldridge said: “As a team we’re averaging four-and-a-half goals per game. We know we’ve probably got tougher tests ahead, but you can only beat the teams in front of you and we’ve done that very well so far this year.”

Common lead a trio of teams - the others being Wick and Selsey - on 19 points from seven games courtesy of their remarkable +28 goal difference.

They’ve scored four or more goals in five of the seven fixtures and leading scorer Lewis Hole has already netted 16 times in all competitions, including 14 in the league.

“I don’t really take too much notice of the league table at this stage of the season,” continued Eldridge. “I guess it’s nice for other people in the group, but it’s important we keep our feet on the ground.

“If we’re off our game at any point, a win becomes a loss and that’s what we don’t want to happen.

“There’s a good spirit, good togetherness, everyone plays for each other and everyone’s looking forward to the next game. We’ve got a good, competitive squad with lots of quality and we’ll just keep on trying to pick up positive results where we can.

Common will be aiming to chalk up another victory when they entertain Storrington tomorrow (Saturday). Kick-off at The Oval is 3pm.

Storrington are 13th in the table having won two and lost five of their seven league matches to date, scoring just six goals.

“They’ve been a bit of a bogey team for us in the past so hopefully we can change that and get the points we need,” added Eldridge, who expects to select from a full squad other than the unavailable James Maynard. “We’ll be looking for the win, but we know we have to work hard and do the basics well.”

For the first time since the opening week of the league campaign, Common are without a midweek fixture next week and Eldridge believes the seven-day gap between matches will be beneficial to the squad.