Icklesham Casuals 1st team kicked-off the new season on Saturday September 2 with an unlucky 3-2 defeat against Bexhill United Reserves at the Recreation Ground.
The Casuals started the game brightly and could have opened the scoring early on but missed two excellent opportunities. Bexhill then began to get on top missing good chances of their own, with Jack Davies in the Icklesham goal keeping the scores level denying a Bexhill forward when clean through on goal. It was Bexhill who deservedly took the lead in the 28th minute when Fabio Histed netted and they went into the interval 1-0 up.
The first period of the second half saw Icklesham become more dominant and an equaliser began to look more and more likely. This came in the 67th minute from Charlie Cornford and only two minutes later the Casuals took the lead when Cornford fired into the roof of the net after a strong run.
Bexhill United came back and equalised in the 74th minute when Benjamin Barton headed in at the far post. Both sides then had chances to win the match but a draw would have been a fair result until Icklesham conceded a free-kick just outside their own penalty area as the game went into added-on time. They failed to clear the resultant cross and Benjamin Barton found the net from close range.
It was a disappointing end to the match but the performance of the side showed encouragement for the season ahead.
This Saturday, September 9 both teams make the short journey to Wittersham with the 2nd team taking on Wittersham 2nds at 2pm followed by a match between the 1st teams of each club at 4pm.
Photo: David Mayne