Mile Oak, Wick and Shoreham enjoy holiday weekend wins - Worthing held in Surrey

Wins for Mile Oak and Wick - and a draw for Worthing Utd - feature in our latest round-up of SCFL football in the Worthing and Littlehampton area.
Action from Mile Oak's win over Wick / Picture: Stephen GoodgerAction from Mile Oak's win over Wick / Picture: Stephen Goodger
Action from Mile Oak's win over Wick / Picture: Stephen Goodger

Mile Oak 4 Wick 3

SCFL division one

Mile Oak hung on for a 4-3 win at home to Mile Oak under the lights on Friday night.

Conor Bull scores one of the four goals he put away for Wick at Billingshurst / Picture: Tommy McMillanConor Bull scores one of the four goals he put away for Wick at Billingshurst / Picture: Tommy McMillan
Conor Bull scores one of the four goals he put away for Wick at Billingshurst / Picture: Tommy McMillan

Oak soon started to find some joy through frontman Harry Furnell getting at Wick’s back four.

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The pressure paid off when Furnell was fouled from behind leading to a penalty, which was calmly converted by Oak captain Zach Haulkham.

Less than two minutes later, Wick were back in the game. Some poor defending from a throw-in allowed Conor Bull to create a yard of space and score past Aaron Stenning with a smart finish.

A flash of brilliance from Jack Stenning led to a 2-1 lead for Mile Oak, thanks to a low drilled shot into the bottom corner.

Once again however, Wick were quickly back on level terms, after defending brilliantly to retain the ball, a rare error by Oak defender Michael Gould resulted in him setting up a Wick player for a simple tap in to an empty net to put the score at 2-2 going into HT.

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Five minutes into the second half, Chris Whittington put a fantastic cross in from the right which fell to Harry Furnell, who duly smashed the ball past the Wick keeper to put Oak into a 3-2 lead.

Just a few minutes later, Mile Oak were two ahead for the first time when Ross Smith fired home from 20 yards out with a fantastic strike. Just after the hour mark, a brilliant cross-field pass from the Wick full-back created a mix up between Oak keeper Stenning, and his back four, leading to another tap in, into an empty net. 4-3.

A questionable second-booking for Oak captain Haulkham created a nervous last five minutes for Oak players and supporters, but despite pressure, Wick couldn’t find a way through to get an equaliser, leading to Mile Oak’s first win of the season.

Manager Tommy Kirwan said: “I’m happy to get a win on the board, especially with some great performances from our young players. I fully expect our momentum to pick up from here. Wick are a solid side with some standout players and I expect them to pick up more wins as the season goes on, good luck to them.”

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* Conor Bull went on a bank holiday rampage to fire Wick to their biggest win in 18 months.

The striker found the net four times in a 5-1 away win in division one of the SCFL at Billingshurst on Monday, including a first-half hat-trick in just nine minutes at the Jubilee Fields, with Johan van Driel weighing in with a quality effort of his own.

Bull also struck twice in Friday’s 4-3 defeat at Mile Oak when Ben Gray added another for the Dragons.

Those goals, plus his double at Roffey, take Bull’s tally to eight this season and a share of top spot in the division one scoring stakes.

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The impressive triumph was the club’s biggest win since the 5-0 win against the same opponents on the same pitch in February last year.

“Conor’s in terrific form and his third goal was particularly impressive as he suffered a painful blow to a cheek in a collision as he bravely headed home,” said Wick assistant-manager Warren Pye.

“We were without key players throughout the side (against Billingshurst) with Dave Crouch, Ben Gray, Liam Brady, Harry Williams and Keelan Belchar all out.

“But there were terrific performances throughout the team from one to 11.”

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Wick seek to build on the big win when Epsom & Ewell visit Crabtree Park on Saturday. Under-16 will gain free admission if wearing their local football team shirts.

Godalming 1 Worthing U 1

SCFL division one

Worthng United’s injury-hit side claimed a draw at league new boys Godalming.

Manager Danny Wood said: “We travelled to Godalming with a bare squad due to injuries that have sidelined seven first team players and handed a debut to under-18 goalkeeper Sam Waller.

“We had a really good 20-minute spell in the first half where Joe Patching was causing a lot of trouble and he was fouled for the penalty with Dan Hills dispatching it.

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“In the second half, although we wanted to get a second we were under a lot of pressure and with two minutes of injury time left we thought we were getting all three points until an error of judgment awarded the home side a penalty in the 93rd minute.

“Waller made a fantastic penalty save and pushed to the side but none of our lads switched on and the resulting cross was scored. I’m happy with a point away from home but gutting that we should have taken all three.”

Worthing United went down 2-1 at Hailsham on Monday, Callum Thoms their goalscorer.

Elsewhere in division one, Shoreham had a fine 4-2 win at Dorking Reserves on Saturday. Alex Fair, Harvey Green and Jonathan Lansdale were all on target.

Arundel lost 2-1 at Seaford on Saturday but hammered Storrington 5-0 on Monday, Nathaniel Monk netting two of their goals.

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