Sidley claim welcome win

Having exited two cup competitions in a week to complete a sudden loss of form, anything less than a win against rock bottom opposition on Saturday could have had a damaging effect on The Blues' season.

Joint manager Andy Laskey said: "You would say it was probably a bit of a stuttering performance. Some parts were very good, some were not so good, but I just think we needed a result."

With a positive result safely tucked away in the locker, thoughts are suddenly altogether more positive.

Four league and cup defeats in a row have been replaced by three Sussex Division One wins out of five - all away from home to match their haul from the whole of last season - and a position in the top eight of the table.

Laskey continued: "It's not brilliant, but it's not a bad return. I think people under-estimate how difficult it is playing that amount of away games early in the season."

United made two changes to the side which lost 3-0 at Hailsham four days previously, Paul Henty coming in for Graham Morris and Jordan Wood replacing Dave Temple.

They retained their now familiar 3-5-2 formation, with Wood and firstly Darren Witham, then Josh Brown filling the wing-back positions.

The visitors looked nervous early on and probably needed Steve Morris' marvellous headed opener from Peter Baker's 23rd minute free kick to settle them down.

Goalscorer Morris doubled their advantage 19 minutes later, although the home goalkeeper probably shouldn't have allowed his curling free kick to creep into the bottom corner.

Sidley had to replace centre-half Henty with Graham Morris early in the second half after picking up an abdominal strain, but the defence remained pretty much water-tight throughout.

They were subjected to a number of top class deliveries at free kicks and corners, yet goalkeeper Peter Newstead was relatively untroubled.

Laskey gave a run-out to promising 16-year-old Jack Aston late on and Baker was a whisker away from making it 3-0 with a brilliant left-foot volley against the crossbar.