M4 vs Worthing 6 - 18/11/23

Match Report-Worthing 6: 0, South Saxon 4: 5

Ultimately a comfortable win on the road for top of the table South Saxons against bottom side Worthing, although Saxons were made to work for their goals as Worthing defended resolutely, but offered very little going forward.

At the end of the game Worthing had registered no shots on target, and no short corners, and had resorted to long passes to their isolated forward players, which were easily dealt with by the Saxons defence, marshalled expertly by Rak Patel and with solid supporting performances by skipper Paul Rye and left back Garry Cooper.

The breakthrough came in the 21st minute when, after a melee in the Worthing D, Saxons were awarded a penalty flick, which was dispatched with aplomb by Pete Klein.

It looked like this would be the signal for the floodgates to open but Worthing held on until the 33rd minute, when a fine passing movement by Saxons was expertly finished by James Heafield, for his sixth of the season, to send Saxons in at half time two goals to the good.

Between the two goals Saxons also had an effort controversially ruled out.

The second half started in much the same vein, with sustained pressure from Saxons, and only the odd moment of discomfort for their defence. The Saxons midfield of Pete Klein, Matt Bate, James Heafield, Will Richardson and Charlie Ogilvie continued to dominate the game. Up front Tim Laughton and Ollie Sheffield were continually frustrated by the Worthing defence, and it wasn’t until the 52nd minute that Matt Bate finished another sweeping move to break the Worthing resistance.

Finally, this signalled the Worthing capitulation and two further goals in the 56th minute (Will
Richardson, with a fine solo effort) and 64th minute (James Rowland, with a great finish on his debut) sealed a seventh win on the bounce for this seemingly invincible squad of players.

Once again, great performances all round from the Saxons team, with special mentions to James Rowland and Lucas Patel who both played exceptionally well and impacted the game greatly from the bench.

by Garry Cooper