Peacehaven are still awaiting their fist win of the embryonic season, after a tough workout against Whitehawk. Pete Edwards is adamant that he is not interested in results at this stage, and in that case he will have been happy with much of this encounter.

Peacehaven more than matched their ambitious neighbours until the game got away from a depleted side towards the end. Whitehawk have an even stronger squad than last season, but there was little to seperate the sides for most of the match, and it was only when Edwards started to weaken his side, and Darren Freeman strengthened his that the match got away from them.

Matt Hill, Scott Marshall, Dave Altendorff, Ryan Bradley and the Bowra brothers were all unavailable for a variety of reasons. Carl Dunk started up front, with Wes Millis coming straight into the starting line up.

Connor Saunders started in defence against his brother Callum, a very popular player in his time at Peacehaven, and the most recent of several high profile signings for the Hawks. It was the first time they had ever faced each other competitively, and must have been a proud moment for their father, Peacehaven's Vice-Chairman Sean Saunders.
 

Whitehawk responded quickly, with Pat Harding surging clear of Saunders only to see his shot cannon of the stantion of post and bar.  The same player appeared to have scored shortly afterwards, but was denied by a decidedly late offside flag. Dunk could then have added to Peacehaven's lead, but Winterton made a good save with his legs.

Darren Freeman introduced Josh Jones and Jerrell Hughes at half time to pep up a lacklustre attack and it immediately paid dividends.  Jones has been the only ever present since the remodeling of the Hawks began, and he showed why here. Cutting in from the right he fired a spectacular shot past Jake Buss.

Hughes was proving a menace on the right, and was brought down by Saunders for a penalty. His spot kick was unconvincing though and Buss made a simple save.

With Peacehaven's side progressively weakening it was only a matter of time before Whitehawk went ahead, and a carbon copy of the previous incident saw Saunders again balk Hughes, and the referee again pointing to the spot. This time Sam Gargan stepped up and rocketed the ball into the back of the net. As we approached full-time, Hughes then redeemed himself with a fine breakaway goal to wrap things up.

Peacehaven have now had three tough games against opposition from higher Leagues, and will welcome the novelty of being favourites for the first time on Tuesday night at Saltdean.

Peacehaven:-  Buss, Hall, Wilkinson, Kneller, Saunders, Gunn (Snell), Callaghan (Green (Wiltshire)), Millis (Levitt), Bunch (Rees), Dunk, O'Toole (Dudson)