OLD CUP FORM NEEDED

IT WILL BE a freak of football if there many goals at Crawley on Saturday. However blunt Crawley are looking up front, Worthing recently have even poorer productivity in attack. In four of their last five games they have scored nil. In the other they won 2-0 at Windsor & Eton and the man who got both goals '” Jones Awuah '” has left Woodside after completting his 30-day loan from Gillingham.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Jan 2005, 11:19 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 00:58 BST

Other loanees from Priestfield Stadium, full-back Leon Solomon and midfielder Ashley Carew, have returned to their Gillingham work experience situation.

Assistant manager Danny Bloor is coldly realistic: "Crawley beat Carlisle United 1-0 on Saturday in front of 2,000 people. That's a lot better than us losing at Cheshunt on Saturday in front of 105.

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"Our problem is the injuries to key members of our side. Owen Hill (ankle ligaments] has no chance of playing against Crawley. Nko Ekoku (fractured eye socket] and Sam Francis (leg injury] are highly unlikely to be able to either.

"It's a tough season. Sam Francis scored more than 30 goals last season. If he'd been playing these last few weeks, I believe we'd still be in the Bryco Cup and we would have taken three points at Cheshunt.

"But we're trying our best, the boys are doing well and our second halves against Eastleigh in the Bryco and at Cheshunt on Saturday were probably our best spells of play this season. Will Packham had no saves to make and we are creating lots of chances.

"We'll have been training Tuesday and Thursday this week. Crawley are odds-on favourites to win but so were Manchester United at home to Exeter City on Saturday (0-0]."

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Town are two grades above Rebels in league status '” a narrower gulf than Exeter's Conference and United's Premiership.

Concluded Bloor: "You never know and if our players perform to the highest level they did last season when we reached the fourth round and brought eventual winners Hednesford Town back to Woodside for a replay, then there is a chance for us."

Ironically, it's Rebels' home form that has clouded their last two months. Their defeat at Cheshunt on Saturday was their first in six away trips and the first since the middle of October at Hampton & Richmond Borough.

Crawley's home form is one defeat in 13 league starts, that defeat coming only to leaders Barnet, 3-1 on December 8.

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In the marksmanship department, Town's leading scorer with eight was their penalty-taker Charlie MacDonald. No Worthing player has scored more than five '” Paul Rogers, who last notched in the middle of September, and free-role Liam Collins, who netted most recently on November 23.

It all merely adds to the eternal sense of the unexpected that top sport always brings.

Supporters' coach travel: 5, leaving Woodside Road at 1.30pm. Any replay: Tuesday at 7.30pm.

CHESHUNT'S floodlights, half dead, drew protests from the Worthing team management on Saturday. But the referee allowed the game to run its course and Leon Archer's 23rd-minute goal proved Cheshunt's 1-0 winner.

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WORTHING: Packham; Holmes, Lutwyche, Head, Pullan, Knee; Rogers, Grice, Phillips; Collins, Awuah. Subs: Green (Grice, inj thigh, 20), Pulling (Phillips, HT), Dicker (Head 70), Fred Dillon (signed from Gillingham Academy), Ormerod. Att: 105.

WORTHING FC Supporters beat Bognor Regis Town Supporters 6-2 at Nyewood Lane on Sunday morning and raised 300 for the Tsunami Appeal.

Related topics:CrawleyDanny BloorGillingham