Crusaders first half dominance is enough for three points

On the way to Brighton, we were concerned about the tough reception we might receive at Whitehawk for, although they are bottom of the league, they have re-appointed former successful manager Steve King who has strengthened the squad and this boost might increase the volume of support from the fans and encourage the drummer to be even louder than ever. As it turned out, we need not have worried, for we scored twice early on and made it 3-0 midway through the first half and were never in danger thereafter.

This fine performance was given an early boost when Paul Stonehouse drove home a good goal from Nicholas Bignall’s pass after only 6 minutes, and, although Lewis Ward had to come quickly off his line to cut out through passes, the home forwards never really threatened our goal.

It was 2-0 after 9 minutes when Marvin Elliott deflected the ball into his own net to put us in complete control and a spectacular goal from Stefan Brown after 22 minutes gave Simon Jorgensen no chance to increase our already comfortable lead.

The second half continued in the same vein, Ward easily dealt with the Whitehawek attacks as we sat back and allowed them more of the play and we missed chances to increase the lead, Louie Soares shooting well wide when he was put clean through by Stefan Brown.

Ward punched out a fierce cross-shot , but we were never in danger of losing our lead and eased comfortably through until the final whistle and it was good to see Luke Hopper and Matt Partridge come on after lengthy injury absences.

Team; Lewis Ward. Rhys Tyler, Diak John, Paul Stonehouse, Gareth Thomas(Matt Partridge), James Rusby, James Clark, Jordan Simpson, Stefan Brown(Jamal Lawrence)Nicholsas Bignall(Luke Hopper),Louie Soares,