Trouble in Storr for Bexhill

The clash of the top two turned into a rather one-sided affair as the defensive errors which plagued United in the early part of the season returned to haunt them.

United, who also lost their six-match unbeaten league home record, simply gifted the West Sussex club three second half goals with a series of mistakes as they sorely missed the guiding hand of a Tim Funnell or an Adam Quinn.

"Three horrendous mistakes in the second half cost us," said manager Bill Trivett. "But to be fair to Storrington we came up against a team who definitely deserved their win. In terms of chances, 4-1 perhaps did flatter them, but at the same time they were very strong and very well-organised. They played to their strengths and we didn't play to our strengths. We were putting too many high balls into the (opposing) centre-halves and they were just cleaning everything up."

Not only did Bexhill not play to their strengths, as Trivett acknowledged, "things didn't seem to go our way" either. Most notably Chris Storrs' 20-yard drive in the fifth minute of first half stoppage time.

At first glance there appeared little threat to the away goal, but goalkeeper Paul Smith spilled the ball Roy Carroll-style towards the line. Just as in January's Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur encounter, though, the goal wasn't given even though the general consensus was that the ball had crossed the line.

"I haven't heard anybody say they didn't think it crossed the line," Trivett added. "Everybody seemed to indicate it was at least a foot over the line. It would have been good to go in 1-1 and it might have been a different game."

In spite of that controversy, however, Bexhill didn't deserve anything from the game. In addition to the three soft goals they gave away, the usually dominant central-midfield pairing of Mark Funnell and Darren Witham were outplayed by the all-action Robbie Norris, while prolific frontmen Wes Tate and Dave Carey barely got a sniff.

By the time they did get on the scoresheet - through substitute Barry Leete's deflected shot in the 99th minute - it was rather too late because Phil Awcock (36), Simon Price (63), the aerially-dominant Dan Griffin (74) and Neil Richardson (76) had already wrapped the game up for the new leaders.