Sidley suffer on and off the pitch

The Blues were hammered 7-0 at Crowborough Athletic, but worse still, they had a number of possessions stolen from their changing room.

At least four mobile phones, several credit cards and approximately 100 in cash was taken during the first half.

It is the second time this season that United have had belongings taken following a break-in at Wick back in December.

"To be fair to Crowborough," said joint manager Andy Laskey, "they were as helpful as they could have been. The chairman bought everyone a drink and he was quite embarrassed about it."

The theft was conducted by a man who was allowed into the locked changing room after claiming to be a Sidley official. The thief, who watched part of the game from near the Sidley dug-out, then went through the players' belongings.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," Laskey continued, "that the County League haven't got some kind of a thing where the manager maybe gets two passes and, unless you show that pass, you can't go in the changing room. It's quite a simple thing."

The players discovered what had happened at half time and Laskey admitted the second half, which was put back around 15 minutes as a result, "was a little bit of a non-event".

Athletic, whose biggest win of the season took them fourth in the table, scored four goals in the second period through hat-trick hero Wes Tate (54 and 61), a Liam Bull penalty (83) and Simon Colbran (90).

They were three-up at the break courtesy of a Chris Steward own goal (22), former Sidley and Bexhill United striker Tate (40) and Chris Ransome (44).

But Sidley, who were forced into making five changes from the side which started the 2-1 win over Shoreham on Saturday, could have been ahead early on.

Dave Carey had a shot saved by one time Bexhill goalkeeper Kusha Movaffagh, Graham Morris saw an effort cleared off the goal-line, Chas Lister headed inches wide and Dave Ward missed an almost open goal.

The result was 12th-placed United's 12th defeat from 14 away league games and they've conceded a whopping 48 goals during that depressing sequence.