This eagerly awaited fixture saw an early return to Culver Road for Dean Cox and team who quit Lancing at the end of last season to take over the reins at Burgess Hill, taking with him some of Lancing’s squad,but only Reece Hallard started .Finn Daniels-Yeoman and Marcel Powell were on the bench and Marcus Allen was sidelined with a couple of fractured ribs.
A solitary goal separated these teams at full time. Rob O’Toole got his head to a corner on 20 minutes which Alieu Secka was unable to keep out.
Lancing looked the better team on the day and came close to scoring shortly after The Hillians had taken the lead, with a header from Henry Watson which rebounded off the underside of the cross bar. The crossbar again came to the Hillians rescue on 30 minutes.George Taggart delivered a superb pass which put Harry Heath in on goal. He finished with a stunning drive which rattled the underside of the cross bar before being scrambled clear. George Taggart then tried for goal himself, picking up the ball midway in the opposition half ,beating a couple of defenders as he powered into the penalty area, whereupon he was brought down. The Lancing faithfull were crying out for a penalty but referee Anthony Cross was unmoved and awarded a free kick inches from the edge of the area.
This was not the only sense of injustice felt by the Lancers as early in the second half Lancing skipper Alex Laing embarked on one of several strong forward runs and was brought down by the last defender as he was about to round him with only the keeper to beat.A red card seemed to be justified but only a caution was issued.
Lancing put The Hillians under intense pressure, coming close with a few headers from set pieces but the visitors held out.
A bumper crowd of 451 were treated to an entertaining contest.
Dave Wilmott
