Cane is the man for Crawley Down Gatwick as they beat Little Common

Once again turgid conditions met both teams for this encounter of torrential rain before and during this match, followed by a brisk wind blowing the length of the pitch.
County League Division 1: Loxwood v Crawley Down Gatwick. Pic Steve RobardsCounty League Division 1: Loxwood v Crawley Down Gatwick. Pic Steve Robards
County League Division 1: Loxwood v Crawley Down Gatwick. Pic Steve Robards

But as has been noticed before nothing deters the Anvils these days be it the opposition or the conditions, a battling spirit / easy on the eye approach football has now been inserted into a competent squad.

Anvils with the wind at their backs and orders to get off to a quick start, duly complied and within the first quarter hour had built up a two goal cushion, the first coming thro Luke Trotter on 10mins heading home a Ben Brooker corner, this then being doubled just after when a freekick by the impressive James Lovatt found Sam Cane to rise to the occasion and nod home the second,

2-0 for the Anvils, how many more one wondered?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Then as happens the opposition turned up, and started to claw their way back into the match with a plethora of corners and freekicks now starting to test the Anvil defenders, something had to give, and on the half hour the Common struck when one of their corners found striker Kyle Holden in space to fire past Anvil keeper Andy Greaves and reduce the deficit to a single goal as both sides continued to battle, albeit for differing reasons for the next addition to the scoreline.

For the second half it was to be all hands to the Anvil pumps, as the homesters with the conditions now in their favour started to up the volume with more freekicks from Liam Foster and Holden testing yet again the Anvil rearguard, but more heroic defending plus keeper Greaves who had taken a few whacks during the game held firm and continued to hold out, that was til the 62nd min when main striker Hole was able to wriggle thro and fire past Greaves to restore parity. 2-2.

With half hour still to go, the Common seemed to relax a little, or perhaps it was the Anvils getting their second wind as they started to get back into the game.

With the surface now getting really boggy and the odd tackle taking the officials eye, bookings started to accumulate with three Anvils visiting the book, on 75 Myles Pitt and Andy Goodwin replaced Dave Houlder and Mike Spence, whilst earlier Oli Leslie had replaced Brooker, but come 82 Leslie out left managed to get his cross over for the lurking Cane to apply the coup de grace and with it three more valuable points to put the Anvils back on top of the pile again.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Team :- 1. Andy Greaves 2. Hass Shurmahi 3. James Lovatt 4. Mike Spence 5. Steve Dixon 6. James Day 7. Dave Houlder ( Myles Pitt ) 8. Lee Thomas 9. Ben Brooker ( Oli Leslie ) 10. Sam Cane 11. Luke Trotter.

Bookings :- Shurmahi 65, Houlders 70, Thomas 72.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!