Steyning Town 0 Merstham 1

Saturday was a very historic day for Steyning Town CFC, playing their first ever fixture in the Isthmian League (South-East) at home to Merstham.

Despite losing by the odd goal, all things considered, the overall performance was very good in Town’s first outing at the higher level as they battled hard against a formidable side.
So, in warm and sunny conditions and with a decent size crowd of over 200 in attendance, swelled by a large, vocal & friendly away following who’d travelled down from Surrey, the match started with the two sides sizing each other up.
However, The Barrowmen were the first to make inroads, going long to attack, with Alfie Rogers looking threatening. As the first half progressed though, the visitors started to find their range also going long and coming at Town directly.
Some stout defending in good measure was required to keep them at bay with some really good work from young debutant Richmond Osei. With Steyning hanging on under the cosh, the sound of the half time whistle was most welcome.
Half Time 0-0
Early on after the break Town had a valid and strong appeal for a penalty waved away for a handball (VAR would have given it!). Frustratingly, soon after the visitors were awarded a penalty of their for a foul well away from the play by George Brown, for which he was booked. Merstham skipper Chas Greenwood stepped up and drilled the spot-kick wide of Stromberg to put the Moatsiders in front.
Town regrouped and pressed to get back into the match, very much taking the game to them, Harvey Killick and Radley-Martin both going close.
With the heat taking its toll Both sides used subs to keep things fresh. Lloyd Francis provided some strong running and young Lucas Murrain made his mark with some neat intelligent passing and he almost pulled Steyning level hitting a nice shot from just inside their box narrowly wide.
The Barrowmen battled really hard in the last 20 minutes, with most of the play in the opposition half, and ended up desperately unlucky not to end the day with something to show.
Yes, a pretty good first outing at the new higher level and if Town learn from the negatives and carry forward the pluses, then good things are sure to come.
Man of the Match, Richmond Osei.
Next up – next Saturday, back to FA Cup action and a preliminary round derby at home to Crawley Down ( KO 3pm).
Final Score- Steyning Town 0 Merstham 1
Town line up – Stromberg, Osei, Weller, Barnes (c), Brown (Goldson) , Da Costa, Killick (Murrain), Edwards (Hallett), Meehan, Rogers (Francis), Radley-Martin (Towning)
Report by Dave Perrett.