Sidley lose to Sussex champions

SIDLEY United rounded off a difficult season with a 3-0 defeat at Sussex League champions Chichester City United.

The West Sussex side went into the match needing to win to make sure of the title but results from elsewhere meant the outcome became irrelevant.

Sidley joint manager Andy Laskey said: "I thought we were unlucky to lose 3-0. The first half we should have been 2-0 up at least. Their keeper made two terrific saves and I thought we were well in it. Defensively we were very strong indeed and going forward we were a good threat.

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"But at half time they found out the Rye score (Rye & Iden United lost 2-1 at Pagham in a match that kicked-off an hour earlier meaning that Chichester couldn't be caught in the race for the title) and I think it changed the game a little bit. They got a cracking first goal and suddenly it's the champions playing against you."

And the 60th minute strike that broke the deadlock was worthy of any championship winning side. There didn't appear to be a great deal of danger to Rob Wiley's goal when the ball dropped to Paul Thomas 25 yards out from goal but the Chi skipper arrowed a stinging volley into the corner of the net giving the goalkeeper no chance.

The impressive Lewis Fennemore, who scored both goals in their 2-0 win at Gullivers two weeks previously, slotted in a well-worked second five minutes later and goalkeeper Lee Preston tucked away the third from the penalty spot five minutes after that following a foul by Lee Wood on Matt Smith.

The home number one was forced to excel in the more accustomed position of his own penalty box early on, however, as Sidley made the initial running.

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He palmed over efforts from Kevin Rose and Craig Ottley but wasn't called into action when Graham Morris burst through. Owen Ball also got into a promising position while Wiley, aside from an audacious nutmeg of an opposing striker, was largely redundant at the other end.

But the failure to sing from the same song sheet for the 90 minutes goes some way to explaining why Blues finished towards the foot and not the top.