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Poor Blues beaten by Hawkhurst

Hawkhurst United 5 - 2 Sidley United - ESFL Premier Division 

Another poor Sidley performance consigned them to comprehensive defeat as Hawkhurst gave themselves a strong chance of survival in the ESFL Premier Division. 

If the Blues thought the previous week at St Leonards Social was bad, the opening 20 minutes here proved even worse as Hawkhurst stormed into a 3 goal lead. Firstly a ball crossed in from the left was slotted home by Mark Mitchell on 9 minutes before Nebiyu Elias strolled through two half-hearted tackles to stroke the ball home on 20 minutes.

And on 24 minutes George Lawrence was on hand to slam the ball home after more poor defending allowed him the freedom of the penalty area. 

Sidley finally woke up when the linesman quickly retrieved the ball for a goal-kick which was hit long to free Logan Copley who got away from his man to slot home on the verge of half time to give the Blues a lifeline.

However, the second half proved no better as Hawkhurst got their fourth goal on 61 minutes when a simple give and go got Mitchell in on goal. Archie Ball replied with a lovely lob on 66 minutes as Sidley briefly threatened to get back into the game with Gary Hempe striking the crossbar with a free kick shortly afterwards.

But Hawkhurst put the game to bed on 87 minutes with Sidley defenders appealing for offside in vein, Mitchell slotted home his hat-trick. It could have been even worse as the home side were awarded a penalty in stoppage time but the taker dragged the effort wide of the post.

A really poor end to the season for the Blues who have seen their chances of jumping above Sandhurst and J.C Tackleway dashed by recent defeats.

Sidley Team: Gray, Dangerfield (O'Callaghan), Hempe, Freeman, Eldridge, Carey, Witham, S.Atkin, K.Atkin, Ball, Copley. 

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