Eastbourne United stun Pagham - Wick ruffle Roffey

Eastbourne United won an extraordinary game at Nyetimber Lane, where something seemed to happen every few minutes.

The fun started before the kick-off as United had brought the wrong kit and turned out in their warm-up tops with no numbers. Ninety seconds in and in the first attack Eastbourne went in front, when Max Thompson fired the ball home from close in. Once Pagham settled down they started to play some good football but good defending and some bad luck, especially for Joe Clarke and Jack Barnes, meant the score stayed at 0-1 until half-time.

Clarke’s luck changed in the 56th minute as he turned in a curling free-kick at the far post. Three minutes later and it was 2-1 to Pagham when an excellent through ball from Barnes was well finished by Ryan Morey from the edge of the box.

But disaster soon followed as a soft Jack Williamson back-pass somehow evaded keeper Lewis Boughton and rolled over the line to make the score 2-2. New signing Lukas Micevicius was brought on for his debut for the injured Ryan Hallett, but within two minutes he saw red for what looked a poor tackle.

The pain just wouldn’t stop for the home side as United were awarded a dubious penalty and an unknown player put the away team 3-2 up. Try as they might the Lions failed to find an equaliser and the whistle went on a most unsatisfactory night for Pagham.

Pagham: Lewis Boughton, Nathan da Costa, Ryan Hallett (Lukas Micevicius), Ross Edwards, Jack Williamson, Conor Geoghegan, Ryan Morey, Jack Barnes (Jake Heryet), Jack Langford, Joe Clarke, Ash Hawkes (Max Davies). Subs not used: George Bingham & Dylan Jelley.

- PAUL DAVIDSON

Wick 2 Roffey 1

Supersub Dave Crouch lived up to his Iceman reputation by coolly firing the Dragons into the fourth round of the Peter Bentley Cup.

He clipped a sublime finish over the stranded Roffey goalkeeper in the 80th minute of an exciting game at Crabtree Park, then added a second by rolling in the loose ball after Ben Gray was denied two minutes from time.

Roffey, third in the Southern Combination Division One table, reduced the arrears in injury-time but couldn’t prevent the Dragons gaining revenge for a 6-2 defeat at Bartholomew Way earlier in the season.

‘I saw the keeper was off his line and decided to chip the ball over him,’ Crouch said.

‘I knew straight away it was going in and I was celebrating before the ball hit the net.’

Wick manager Lee Baldwin added: ‘The second 45 minutes were the best we’ve played all season.’