Steyning Town staged a remarkable comeback on Saturday as they turned round a one goal deficit at half-time to defeat Hythe Town at the Birchwood Stadium on Saturday.
Town came into the game, still full of confidence despite a narrow loss last week away at Sheppey United. There was one change to the starting lineup as the returning Ross Edwards came in for the absent Nathan Da Costa.
This game then really unfolded as the cliched tale of two halves.
In the first half Steyning were able to create a number of chances but lacked conviction when those chances came their way. The best of the chances fell to the lively Charlie Meehan who was thwarted by two magnificent saves by the Hythe keeper within the space of 30 seconds.
However, the main pattern of the half was that the visitors were clearly in charge . Wave after the wave of attacks came through the lively front four and Steyning in all honesty were clinging on a little bit and were lucky to go in only one down courtesy of a fine strike from the impressive Court on loan from Maidstone United. Town had changed shape in that first half but still hadn’t really found their rhythm and were often playing on the back foot.
Not entirely sure what was put in the halftime tea, but The Barrowmen staged a remarkable second-half turnaround. In all honesty Steyning dominated the second period from start to finish. The back line was solid led by man of the match Danny Howick. Suddenly the team were getting their toe in, suddenly they were winning the headers, suddenly they were winning the 50-50 challenges. However, as the half wore on decent chances for Shooman and Meehan went begging and the Town faithful started to believe it might not be their day.
However the pendulum swing really began in the 73rd minute as a low drive into the box fell to the feet of Alfie Rogers who was slightly off-balance as he rounded the Hythe keeper and nudged the ball home via the post. Suddenly everything had changed.
Francis let rip with a stinging drive go which was well saved. Steyning forced a number of successive corners and it was from one of these corners in the 83rd minute , that the ball fell to Shooman who nudged the ball back to captain Barnes and his whipped in cross was volleyed home by Rogers at the near post. What a turnaround. Town saw out the remaining minutes with very little to be bothered about. At the final whistle they could celebrate their first home league win of the season, and in fact their first ever home win in the Isthmian league, which saw them jump up the table to a very respectable 14th position. Two wins and three losses is a fairly acceptable return as the team get used to life in this higher division.
On to Tuesday night now and an exciting Sussex Senior Cup tie with Bognor Regis town FC. Kickoff 745pm at the Birchwood Ground.
Town: Stroomberg-Clarke Weller Edwards Barnes Fuller Howick Hyland Francis Rogers Meehan Shooman
Subs Used: Towning Murrain Stephenson Not used: Kaslauskas Osei
