The Beacon played host to two Southern Combination League cup finals over the Bank Holiday weekend with Saltdean United and Selsey both getting their hands on the final two pieces of silverware of the season
The league’s showpiece Peter Bentley League Cup final took place on Monday when a bumper crowd witnessed Saltdean lift the trophy for the first time since 2000 and only the second time in their history thanks to a 3-1 win over AFC Uckfield Town.
This was a game that had it all as there were legal goals, disallowed goals, two red cards and a missed penalty thrown in for good measure.
Uckfield thought they were the first to strike a blow when they had the ball in the back of the net inside of the opening four minutes but the goal was correctly disallowed for offside.
The Oakmen continued to be the early aggressors as Callum Smith and Richie Welch both saw efforts well saved by former Hassocks number one Nathan Stroomberg.
It took until the 19th minute for Saltdean to register their first real effort on goal but it was worth the wait as Jamie Brotherton’s shot proved too hot to handle for Louis Rogers in the Uckfield goal and Ross Barclay reacted quickest to fire the loose ball home.
Things got a little heated towards the end of the first half which culminated in Smith being the first player to see red. Referee Will Briers had little choice but to show the Uckfield man a yellow card for an off-the-ball push and then minutes later Smith hauled down Jordan Pryor to pick up a second booking an early bath.
Saltdean nearly made their numerical advantage count before the break, Barclay rattling the post at the Railway End of the ground and Ryan Warwick fizzing an effort narrowly wide.
Whatever Uckfield boss Anthony Storey said at the interval to his charges clearly had the desired effect as despite being a man down, they equalised within five minutes of the restart.
Saltdean failed to deal convincingly with an initial corner and that gave Regan Smith a second chance to deliver which he duly did, straight onto the head of Bailo Camara who leveled things up.
It stayed that way for all of four minutes. A long ball over the top saw Tayler Maddock get into a bit of a mess and although Rogers did brilliantly to keep out Brotherton’s initial effort, he could do nothing about the rebound which was clinically dispatched for 2-1.
Chances were at a premium after that although Saltdean were given a glorious chance to wrap the game up with two minutes remaining.
Mr Briers adjudged Uckfield’s Steve Hickman-Smith to have deliberately handled in the box and so he became the second Oakman to see red. Brotherton saw the resulting penalty saved and held by Rogers to keep Uckfield in the game.
That buoyed Storey’s men on and they fashioned two chances in the final two minutes, Ellis Cormack lifting over both Stroomberg and the bar and Camara firing into the side netting as the nine men went looking for an unlikely equaliser.
Their hopes were finally killed off in stoppage time when Saltdean did add a third, Curtis Gayler’s 25 yard free kick taking a slight deflection out of the reach of Rogers to ensure that the trophy went to Hill Park.
On Sunday, Under 18 West Division champions Selsey confirmed their place as the Southern Combination Under 188 League section’s overall winners by beating Eastern champions Newhaven 3-0.
After an even opening half hour, Selsey scored twice in 12 minutes just before half time through Joe Bennett and Alfie Johnson to go into the break with a 2-0 lead.
Newhaven did their best to battle back into proceedings but they couldn’t find a way past a resolute Blues defence and Selsey added a third in injury time as Ross Ballam rounded off the scoring.
