Whitehawk 2 Rams 1

The Whitehawk trilogy finally came to an end at a wet East Brighton Park as a tired looking Rams side lost again to a very strong Whitehawk team. There can be no disgrace in losing to the Hawks, a team that had not conceded a goal in open play all season. Mark Lovell returned to the team after his recent knee injury with Joe Taylor dropping down to the bench.

The home team were quick off the mark with a Gargan and Keehan interchange producing a great save from Hawkes on 3. However relief was short-lived, Pat Harding breached the Rams off-side trap and dribbled past Hawkes before giving the home team a 5^th minute lead.  Laslett was almost put through by Lovell on 8 and a free-kick by Gareth Cornhill was superbly saved by home ‘keeper Winterton after Pascal Ebigbo has been fouled on the edge of the box, earning home defender Richards a booking. However things got worse on 21, when spotting Daren Hawkes off his line, Paul Armstrong beat the retreating Rams ‘keeper with a delicate lob. Liam Quinn was wide from a retaliatory corner a minute later but the Hawks continued to press. The Rams defence, in which Ollie Gray was superb, held firm.

Rams gave a much better 2^nd half display with Ebigbo almost dribbling through the home defence on 52. Five minutes later the arrears were reduced when a snap shot by Pettit fooled the home keeper to put the visitors back in the game. Ebigbo almost equalised when his effort was blocked on the line and a Lovell shot was deflected wide on 67. Hawkes produced two great saves from Jones and Godfrey on 72 to keep the Rams in the hunt and the home team missed a great chance to settle the match on 75 when Godfrey headed wide of an open goal following a Logan cross.  The home team then saw out the match but not before a last minute drive from Wheatley just went outside of the post.

Rams: Daren Hawkes, Gareth Cornhill, Luke Wheatley, Ollie Gray, Liam Quinn (c), Ben Laslett, Pascal Ebigbo, Aaron Beech (Warren Schulz 57), Mark Lovell, Simon Pettit (Joe Taylor 78), Mitchell Sherwood (Steve O’Brien 78). Unused Subs: Joseph Afusi and James Brown.