A goal down inside twenty seconds was sadly just the start on the slippery slope out of the Emirates FA Cup for Sittingbourne as they crashed out of the competition at the hands of Littlehampton Town.

It wasn’t that Darren Blackburn’s side played badly – they just made crucial defensive mistakes at the back which their hosts more than capitalised on; the score-line would suggest a one-sided contest, but this was far from that and had the Brickies had a same amount of luck in front of goal as the home side had over the two games…

But that, sadly for Blackburn and his side, is Cup football!

With the game beginning at 7:30 rather than the “usual” 7:45, it was almost as though the visitors hadn’t come out of the dressing room as the home side flew out of the blocks and were ahead inside twenty seconds as Joe Benn sent a brilliant, angled lob over a stranded Magnus Lewis in the Brickies goal.

The home side were rampant, and Dave Herbert should have done better when he dragged a good chance wide before Dion Jarvis fired high and wide from the edge of the box.

Finally, Sittingbourne were able to get a foot hold on the enormous playing area (that’s shared with Littlehampton Cricket Club) and from Toby Ajala’s corner, home keeper James Binfield was extremely fortunate as he dropped the ball and it ricocheted straight back to him off a defenders back! Another Ajala corner almost brought the visitors level as Toby Bancroft’s thumping header was somehow diverted onto the underside of the bar by a defender who really didn’t know where the ball was – there were appeals that the ball had crossed the line, but the officials waved the pleas away.

The visitors were enjoying their best spell of the game and the home defence were really stretched but the yellow wall in front of Binfield’s goal just would not be breached and before the break they extended their lead with a freakish goal. A set piece wasn’t dealt with in the Brickies defence as Lewis tried to punch clear, the ball looped high into the air and almost apologetically dropped into the back of the net.

Even then. Sittingbourne created another great chance before the break as the returning skipper Kane Rowland got a terrific flick onto Johan Caney-Brown’s cross only for Binfield to plunge away to his right to claw the ball away. It was tough on the Brickies skipper who worked his socks off all night n his return from the starting line up after recovering from COVID.

Half time arrived at the wrong time for the visitors and after the break, they struggled again to get back into the game and just past the hour the home side effectively sealed the game as yet again defensive frailties came to the fore, and Tom Biggs accepted the gift – drilling through the crowd and into the Sittingbourne net.

There was no way back into the game for the Brickies – full backs Taylor Fisher and Tom Loynes did have efforts on the Littlehampton goal that flashed wide and was well saved by Binfield respectively – whilst the final act of the tie saw home player manager George Gaskin complete the scoring late on as he slotted past Lewis and into the net.

LITTLEHAMPTON TOWN – Binfield, Hunt, Duncan, Herbert, Clark, Peake, Patterson, Jarvis, Benn, Biggs, Gaskin

Subs – Wiggans, Packer, Askew, Jenkins, Hegarty, Humphries, Litterick

SITTINGBOURNE – Lewis, Loynes, Fisher, Minger, Rogers, Freeman, Crimmen, Bancroft, Abdulla, Rowland, Ajala, Caney-Brown

Subs – Nza, Taylor, Afriyie, Akin, Yao, Pont

REFEREE – Mr Bartlett

Image courtesy of Ken Medwyn