Southwick win at home to ten-man Town

Wickers had recorded a 3-1 win at title favourites Haywards Heath in their opening match on Saturday and continued where they had left off with a comfortable victory over ten-man Town.

Tom Donnelly struck a hat-trick and George Rudwick netted his second in two games to send Wickers top of the fledgling league table – albeit only on goal difference.

Wickers boss John Kilgarriff was delighted with another victory for his side and said: “I’m really pleased with the result and also the performance as derby games are always difficult.

“Steyning going down to ten men made a huge difference to the game and, if I’m being honest, 4-1 flattered us a little bit.

“Richard Hudson was also maybe a bit fortunate to not get sent off as well just before and, if I’m being critical, I was also a bit disappointed at the nature of their goal.

“We’ve started this season as we finished the last and, although it’s too early to start thinking about aims and goals for the season, we just want to carry on playing well and getting the best out of this squad.”

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It took Wickers only 13 minutes to go ahead as Donnelly latched on to Hudson’s perfectly weighted through ball and dinked the ball over Steyning keeper Mike Abbott.

Town then squandered a golden chance to equalise when George McMahon and Rob Clark linked up to play in Lee Garnham, who found himself unmarked, only to fire his weak volley straight at Wickers keeper Kieran Gillard.

Donnelly had a header ruled out for offside and Lewis Levoi went close with a free kick, but the match hinged on the dismissal of Matt Dodd for a lunging, two-footed tackle on Elliott Finney on the half-hour.

Steyning felt aggrieved that a similar incident shortly before had seen Hudson escape with only a yellow, but, from then on, Southwick were dominant.