It was a very poor opening sixty minutes for Icklesham Casuals last Saturday, in their Division Four match away to Hooe with the home side’s counter attacking football taking them into a 3-0 lead.
When the Casuals finally started to play, a goal from Sam Norman reduced the deficit but Hooe soon restored their three goal advantage. Icklesham then put much more pressure on the Hooe defence with Ken Wadbrook’s shot being deflected into the net and Sam Norman scoring again following a penalty to make the final score 4-3.
On Sunday morning, Icklesham Casuals Veterans took on a very strong Sidley United Veterans side in the Hastings FA Veterans League. Sidley had won their opening match in the competition 13-2 and the Casuals had a disastrous opening ten minutes. In the first minute of the game, goalkeeper Nick Thompson was injured and had to leave the field, with substitute Stuart Adams taking over in goal and just two minutes later defender Matt Roberts suffered a serious tendon injury which required a hospital visit, which meant forward Emmanuel McDonald moving to right back, having never played in defence before. To make matters worse, Sidley were awarded a penalty in the tenth minute which they converted to take the lead.
These setbacks would have been too much for many teams, but the Casuals refused to lie down and showed the true Icklesham spirit. Phil Badrock levelled the scores around the twenty minute mark, before Rob Levett netted to give the Casuals a 2-1 interval lead. On the hour mark Mike Beaumont scored to put Icklesham 3-1 up, only for Sidley to pull a goal back. There was still time for Beaumont to find the net again for his second goal of the game and a memorable 4-2 victory.
It was a great team effort with every player contributing to a deserved win. Icklesham now have two wins out of two in the competition and lie second in the table behind Battle Town.
This Saturday October 31 sees an away league match at Magham Down with the game kicking-off at 2pm.
Image Credits: Icklesham Casuals .