Worthing 1 Blues 3

Leiston made it five wins from their last five games in the new year on Saturday after claiming a 3-1 victory away at Worthing. Glenn Driver named an unchanged side after the same eleven recorded a convincing victory over Canvey Island on Tuesday writes Ollie Fairs.

The first chance of the match went the way of Leiston when Gareth Heath had a long range free kick tipped onto the post and out for a corner. Leiston opened the scoring in the 10th minute after the resulting corner was flicked on at the near post and bounce up at the feet of Byron Lawrence who drove his half volley through a crowd of bodies and into the back of the net. The Blues doubled their lead in the 24th minute which came from a corner much like the first but this time was headed by captain Tom Bullard. There was a moment pause as the Referee decided whether the ball had crossed the line or not, but the celebrations soon began as he pointed to the centre circle and gave the goal.

Early in the second half Leiston had another great opportunity to further their lead when Matt Blake got on the end of a Patrick Brothers cross, but he couldn’t keep his header down and it rattled against the crossbar. There were positive signs from Worthing in the first half and even more so in the second as they constantly found themselves in good positions but lacked the quality needed in the final third Worthing found that bit of quality in the 78th minute when a ball in the Leiston area was not cleared properly and allowed Sam Rents to lob the ball into the far corner to cut Leiston’s lead to just one. Worthing pressed hard looking for another goal in the final few minutes but were denied time and time again whether it was brave goalkeeping or a heroic block that kept them out. The home side had several great chances, the highlight of which being when a long ball in behind was not dealt with by the Leiston defence and allowed a Worthing player to run onto the ball in the box but he couldn’t direct his header on target. The game also had its fair share of controversy after Seb Dunbar and Will Hendon had a confrontation which saw them both lucky to not have received a card from the referee. Worthing also had two penalty appeals turned down by Referee Leigh Crowhurst which clearly upset the home fans as they thought their team should have been back in the game. Leiston sealed the game deep into injury time when Byron Lawrence won the ball and cleared it long to Matt Blake who was completely free before accurately sliding the ball under the keeper to see his side walk away 3-1 victors.

FT - Worthing 1 Blues 3

Worthing - Fagan, Hendon (Watson 90 mins), Rents, Wills, Boiling, Heath, Dawes, Edwards (O'Neill 61 mins), Bugiel, Hopkinson (Brodie 45 mins), Sparks. Sub not used - Denyer-Schneider.

Blues - Jacob Marsden, Brown, Dunbar, Ainsley (Joe Marsden 83 mins), Hutchings, Bullard, Lawrence, Heath, Blake, Muir-Merchant (Cole 77 mins), Brothers (Francis 63 mins). Subs not used - Jefford and Lay-Fulcher.

Man of the Match - Jake Hutchings

Attendance - 823