Eastbourne Dynamos had a long travel to Ashington for their first taste of Sussex Junior Cup football. Manager Gary Taylor looked for the Club's first competitive win and was able to field the same team for two weeks running for the first time. If Dynamos are to win at all this season, they are going to need to be able to play for the first 20 minutes at least while keeping a clean sheet. It took two minutes for Ashington Rovers to take the lead. The Eastbourne defence where napping as the Ashington striker chased a through ball and knocked it into the bottom left hand corner. Things got worse on 4 minutes as Ashington scored a second that was a carbon copy of the first, and a minute later, Dynamos had conceded again from a corner that was flicked into the net at the near post. Dynamos were 4-0 down in 12 minutes when the Eastbourne defence again couldn't cope with a ball through the middle, and the Ashington forward rounded the Simon Burke in the Eastbourne goal before slotting into an empty net. Dynamos could have let their heads drop, but they got themselves into the game when Wayne Burkes free kick was tipped over by the keeper, Neil Taylor swung in the corner and was diverted goal wards by Captain Mark Likeman who claimed his second goal in as many games on 18 minutes, even though Lloyd Taylor tried to claim he got the final touch. It was then Rovers turn to struggle with a ball down the middle, when N. Taylor shrugged off the defender to get to the ball before the oncoming keeper and chip the ball over him and into the net for Dynamos second of the game on 21 minutes. 3 minutes later, N. Taylor's back flick found brother L. Taylor who took an early shot from outside the area for a brilliant finish to get Eastbourne Dynamos well and truly back into the game with the scores at 4-3. Both teams seemed to find defending difficult, as Dynamos conceded a fifth. The Ashington player managed to beat the Dynamos offside trap, and with the Linesman flagging, the referee ignored the offside calls, and the Ashington player was the only one who played to the whistle, as he rounded S. Burke and slotted into an empty net. There was still time in the half for a ninth goal, as Dynamos got the deficit down to one goal again. N. Taylor fed through Lloyd Taylor, who cut the ball back to Wayne Burke to notch the ball into the net for his second goal of the season. In the second half, Ashington copped better with the Eastbourne front line, and they also took advantage of the big gap that had emerged in the middle of the park. They cut through Dynamos on 47 minutes with the midfield failing to chase back, before the midfielder curled the ball round S. Burke for their sixth goal. S. Burke was beaten again when the Ashington player rounded him and managed to find the net from an acute angle on 55 minutes to make the score 7-4. Two minutes later James Smith came to the rescue as he cleared off the line when the ball looked to be going in. On 58 minutes, Darren Vine replace Glenn Taylor, followed shortly by James Dale being replace by David Moran and a reshuffle seemed to settle Dynamos a little. If Dynamos can take anything from their recent bad run, it's that they can score goals and don't give up and are showing glimpses of bouncebackability. Ashington conceded again from a well taken corner with 7 minutes left, this time by Jeff Ferguson, Likeman again was first to the ball and finished in the net after L. Taylor's shot on the turn. With 1 minute left, W. Burke found L. Taylor down the wing, and as the defender and keeper closed in on him, he square to N. Taylor who finished well for his second and Dynamos sixth. With a minute left, Eastbourne pushed for the goal that would send the game into extra time, and when Moran won the ball in the Ashington half and W. Burked picked up the lose ball, his effort from 25 yards had the keeper beaten, but the ball skimmed off the bar. Dynamos crashed out of the Sussex County Junior Cup at the first hurdle, but with a total of 36 goals in their first 5 games, its more exciting to watch than England vs Macedonia. |
