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Anyone who was late arriving at
the ground will have missed Peacehaven's dream
start. In the first minute, Craig Hall's perfect
chip through the defence landed perfectly for
Wes Millis on the edge of the six yard box, and
he dummied De Bernardo in the away goal before
calmly slotting home.
Against an in-form team lying in
4th place, it was a valuable goal, and a
valuable lead, but it was only to last 4
minutes. Lancing levelled with an incredible
strike from Sam O'Regan who ran onto a
crossfield pass, just inside the Peacehaven
half, and his rifling shot flew into Heyburn's
top right corner, despite the keeper's best
efforts to make a save.
Within 5 minutes the visitors
where in front when Darren Boswell ran on to a
short corner, and he made his way into the
"Haven area before floating the ball across the
box, and into the far corner, to complete a very
unpredictable opening 10 minutes.
In recent weeks, the chances of
Peacehaven coming back from such a start would
have been slim, but there seemed to be a renewed
positive feeling amongst the side, and the goal
only seemed to rally Peacehaven.
They were unlucky not to equalise
midway through the half when De Barnardo pulled
off a string of close range saves involving Wes
Millis and Ryan Bradley but, having scored in
the first minute, Peacehaven were to leave it
until the last minute of the half to find their
leveller.
Matt Fleming was upended just
outside the box and Carl Dunk's perfect
free-kick flew past the stationary De Bernardo
to give Peacehaven the upper hand as they went
into the break.
Ten minutes after the restart
they were to have a golden chance to take
control of the game when Murray's flighted cross
saw De Bernardo make a clumsy ariel challenge,
flattening Ryan Bradley in the process and
leaving Mr Meilack with no option but to point
to the spot. Carl Dunk stepped up for the kick,
but the keeper guessed the right way, and he
smothered Dunk's low shot.
Midway through the half, Lancing
nearly made Peacehaven pay for the miss when
Graham Martin beat the offside trap and he found
himself clear with only Josh Heyburn to beat,
but his low drive was well saved by the Haven
keeper to keep the scores level.
Peacehaven came out on top
possession-wise for the rest of the half, but
were unable to capitalise on this. As the game
came to an end, substitute Jack Loraine caused
confusion in the home defence when we beat to
men out wide before driving low across the box,
only to see a defender deflect the ball narrowly
past his own post.
It was a positive afternoon for
Peacehaven and, despite some recent
disappointing Cup results, they have now only
lost one of their last five League games, and
will be looking to defend their unbeaten away
League record when they travel to Lingfield on
Tuesday evening. |