Chopbacks triumph in tight match
Sovereign Saints 3
South Coast Athletico 4
This weekend saw the Chopbacks travel to Eastbourne to face Sovereign Saints II in what would turn out to be a closely contested game.
There was a minute’s silence before kick-off in memory of the father of one of the Sovereign Saints players who had died last weekend.
The Chopbacks started nervously but through a well battled individual goal by Jack Bloomfield they took the lead early on.
Defensively they still hadn’t quite woken up and two minutes later the opposition equalised from the edge of the box.
But the Chopbacks pressed on and took the lead again but once more the defence was caught napping resulting in going behind from a through ball.
The boys didn’t let their heads drop though and were back level just three minutes later when Connor Easton set up Lee Finnigan to equalise.
There was a minute’s silence before kick-off in memory of the father of one of the Sovereign Saints team who died last weekend.
Ten minutes before half-time they took the lead from an in-swinging corner by Connor Smith which was met by the head of Dayle Mcgurk.
At half time manager Neil Sutcliffe and assistant Sam Cook asked for more of the same going forward but urged the team to tighten up defensively.
Six minutes into the second half the Chopbacks stood off their attackers a bit too much and were punished by a delightful goal by their number nine from 25 yards out.
Determined to come away with three points the visitors continued to push for a fourth goal and it came after 65 minutes, another in-swinging corner by Connor Smith, this time met by the head of Connor Easton to give the Chopbacks the lead again. They then managed to see out the remainder of the game to win 4-3.
Man of the match: Lee Finnigan
The Chopbacks next game is against Robertsbridge II in the cup quarter finals next weekend.