Chichester City suffer knockout blows

FA Vase

For the second time in eight days, Chichester were knocked out of a major cup competition.

City started the match without eight first-team regulars, whilst Erith were giving a debut to Ola Rabiu and were welcoming back Richard Morgan.

In the early minutes both teams appeared nervous as they tried long balls forward, but Erith found their feet and began attacking Chi’s right-hand side.

The pressure told on the 17th minute as Youngs was left with too much time and space in the box before he slotted the ball past Holden.

Chi’s best chance of the half came in the 33rd minute when Daren Pearce was left unmarked at the back post. But he couldn’t get a firm contact on his header and the ball skimmed past the post.

In the 47th minute, Rabiu put a dangerous ball in the box and Matt Smith inadvertently put the ball into his own net, giving Erith their second of the game.

This appeared to kill the game and Chi looked broken. They did create one more opportunity – in the 66th minute Hartley was through on goal with no-one around him, only for his second touch to be too heavy, giving the keeper the chance to grab the ball from his feet.

Erith also created one last opportunity when Mundele was put one-on-one with Holden, only for his low effort to hit the bar. The game finished 2-0 to Erith on a tough day for Chichester.

CITY: Holden, Williams, Richardson (Goulding), Pearce, Smith, Hegarty, Clack, Kilner (Atkinson), Hartley, Manners (Byles), Edwards. Subs unused: Pearce, Sanders.

ANDREW JOLLY

* Loxwood eliminated Chichester from the Peter Bentley League Cup on Tuesday night with an extra-time winning goal.

City took the lead within seconds of the kick-off through Josh Case and held onto to their advantage until the 47th minute. A delivery into the City goalmouth from Charlie Pitcher should have been cleared but a slip by Daren Pearce allowed Billy Woon to equalise.

Loxwood came within inches of scoring from a corner on 63 minutes, and 7 minutes later they were ahead with Woon striking his second of the night.

Cecil Jee then struck the bar for the Magpies before Dan Hegarty at the other end knocked the ball in from a scramble following Pearce’s corner to level the game at 2-2.

Right at the start of extra-time, sub Matt Simpson netted what proved to be the deciding goal for Loxwood, although they had to endure a nervy ending.

Last-man Josh Courtney was red-carded for bringing down City’s Jimmy Wild, and a final header from Graham Bush went just over the bar in desperate finish where Chichester narrowly failed to force a penalty shoot-out.

City: Holden, Buckland, Edwards, Pearce, Hegarty, Atkinson, Kilner, Wild, Case, Byles. Subs: Sandalls, Bush, Williams.

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