Huet at the double as EP bag first win

It was a first win of the season for EP – after 12 defeats and two draws in their previous 14 league matches – and their winless run was 19 games in all competitions.

They remain second from bottom in the Southern Combination League Premier Division table but are now five points clear of bottom-of-the-table St Francis, who have lost all 14 of their league matches and scored just once all season.

East Preston, who bounced back after a 10-0 defeat at Newhaven last week, have moved to within five points of sixth-from-bottom Arundel and Ettridge said: “We had a few players sign last week and, at the end of the day, it was the result we needed.

“We could have beaten Arundel a couple of weeks ago when we drew 2-2 but we went down to ten men when we were 1-0 up and then did well to draw the game.

“Away to Newhaven, we just couldn’t get a team out and it was a big struggle.

“But we signed a few players on last week and I’m hoping to sign a couple more this week, so we’ve got good competition for places.”

East Preston had several chances to take the lead on Saturday, before Dan Huet got the opener five minutes before half-time.

Huet, Mo Shuga’a and Alfie Gritt all had efforts which went over, before Huet struck the opener with a excellent finish.

The hosts doubled their lead on 74 minutes when substitute Craig Rennie netted with his first touch from Huet’s cross.

East Preston keeper Ben Purkis made a superb save to tip a shot over, before EP made sure of all three points on 85 minutes when Huet scored his ninth goal of the season.

Ettridge added: “We’ve signed Matt Woodward, Lloyd Dean, Louis Coulson, Ben Piner and Jacob Atterbury and they’ve all come in and got a win straight away.

“A lot of the players hadn’t won a game this season, so that’s good for us as well.”

East Preston travel to Chichester in the league on Saturday.

EAST PRESTON: Purkis; Dean, John, Woodward, Piner; Cockerton, Vine, Coulson, Shuga’a; Huet, Gritt. Subs: Rennie (Gritt 78), C.Chikowore, Ashworth (Shuga’a, Coulson 85), Hallett.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!