WORTHING WINNERS DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

Fish and chips were the order of the day as Peckham travelled down to the south coast for their fourth pre-season friendly. Their opponents, step six side Worthing Utd, provided a warm welcome on a very wet and windy July afternoon. Mary Phillip’s had a selection dilemma as many of her squad were “unavailable” leaving her with only five regulars from last season. Jacob Kemp, Tidi Barry, Joe Thomas, Nicky Meta and Kieran Dowding made the trip along with six trialists.

With the game underway, the hosts were awarded a penalty with barely two minutes played, leaving the Menace faithful thinking that this could be an extremely one sided game. Their worries were eased as the spot kick was sent high and wide of the Peckham goal. After their early scare Peckham grew into the game and should have taken the lead in the 13th minute. It was Kieran Dowding again who found himself in a similar position to last week when he netted in under 17 seconds, but he scuffed his shot and the Worthing keeper made a comfortable save.

Just after the half hour mark the Peckham trialist keeper pulled off two decent saves to deny the hosts an opener, the first a point blank save at the feet of a Worthing striker. Mary Phillip’s side then went down to ten men temporarily as the number 2 required some lengthy treatment for what looked like a tweaked calf.

It was whilst down to ten men that Peckham stunned the hosts by taking the lead in the 38th minute from a Tidi Barry goal. And what a goal it was! The hosts tried to clear their lines but midfielder Jacob Kemp won the ball back 20 yards from goal. He then played the ball across the ‘D’ to Tidi Barry who proceeded to turn his marker and played it back to Jacob Kemp. Tidi Barry then continued his run into the area and latched on to a pass from his midfield counterpart. All looked to be lost as the angle to goal got smaller and smaller but the midfield maestro never gave up and dinked the ball over the advancing keeper and into the Worthing goal much to the delight of the Menace supporters.

The lead didn’t last long, as despite calls for offside the hosts equalised four minutes later. Then as the first half entered added time the hosts were ahead, again in somewhat controversial circumstances as a foul on a Peckham player in the build up went unnoticed by the officials. Half time came seconds later and Mary Phillip’s made her one and only change, the number 2 unable to continue, and was replaced by Coach Junior given that the subs bench was empty!

Whatever she had said to her players at half time, had an immediate effect as they came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders. With barely two minutes played Nicky Meta crossed the ball into the Worthing 6 yard box. A Trialist (Peckham's number 14) rose to head it home at the near post levelling the game, 2-2.

It then went from bad to worse for the hosts as the official pointed to the spot two minutes later. Up stepped Nicky Meta to slot the ball home and despite the keeper guessing the right way, the ball crept in at his left hand post making it 3-2 to Peckham.

The lead however lasted just under ten minutes this time as the hosts beat the offside trap from Peckham’s high back line and equalised two minutes before the hour mark. With just under 25 minutes to play Kieran Dowding had a great chance to score but hit his effort just wide.

The Peckham players were beginning to look tired now and with multiple substitutes at their disposal, the hosts started to take control of the game. With the conditions worsening mistakes were evident as again the official awarded the hosts another spot kick in the 71st minute. This time however the Worthing man buried it into the Peckham goal to make it 4-3.

Peckham were beginning to look vulnerable at the back and it took a fine save from the trialist keeper to deny the hosts a fifth goal two minutes later. It wasn’t too long until they did get a fifth with only seven minutes to play. And that’s how it finished, 5-3 to Worthing but under the circumstances, this wasn’t a bad effort from Mary Phillip’s players and they left the field to a rapturous round of applause from not only the Menace faithful but the 20 or so home supporters too.

Our pre-season wraps up next Saturday 29th July as we entertain Actonians from the Southern Amateur League. Kick off at the Menace Arena is 1pm and hopefully a decent crowd will be there to cheer on the Menace.

Peckham Town FC (4-2-3-1): A Trialist; A Trialist, Joe Thomas, A Trialist, Nicky Meta; Jacob Kemp, Tidi Barry; Kieran Dowding (c), A. Trialist, A. Trialist; A. Trialist. Subs: none, so Coach Junior replaced A Trialist (right-back) at half time