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Two off as Sidley ship four second half goals

Sidley United saw two players sent off as a half time lead turned into a 4 - 1 defeat at the hands of Little Chelsea.

On an incredibly narrow pitch, Sidley began lively and looked assured for the first 5 minutes but the hosts gradually found their feet and began to threaten. However the Blues looks strong going forward and it was them who opened the scoring when a nice move down the right saw the ball cut back and James Bailey steered the ball low past the goalkeeper on 23 minutes.

The game began to get a bit niggly and both sides felt that the referee allowed a lot of 'afters' to go unpunished and tempers began to rise. On 31 minutes joint manager Adam Day was shown a straight red card for an apparent kick out in an off the ball incident. The rest of the half was played predominantly in the Sidley half, but they held firm to half time.

It was always going to be a difficult task with 10 men in the second half but Little Chelsea's equaliser came via a very harsh penalty decision. As Lee Short came to block a cross, the referee adjudged the ball to hit his arms, despite only a half hearted appeal from a few Little Chelsea players. The resulting spot kick was despatched high into the net, giving goalkeeper Kevin Rose no chane.

From that point on, Sidley discipline was a problem with too many arguments between the referee, rival players and their supporters further irritating the boys with some guilty of not playing to the whistle and switching off. A second goal came shortly after as Sidley appealed for offside which never was, the Little Chelsea forward not stopping to check as he slammed the ball in low.

Clearly angered by some of the winding up from the opposition, some poor challenges resulted in yellow cards for a few more Sidley players, with Anthony Briscoe collecting a second yellow for a firm challenge having earlier been booked for foolishly kicking the ball away.

Further goals followed late on as Sidley were simply overran with the two man deficit and couldn't cope with covering the spaces and in the end the final whistle was something of a relief. A harsh lesson for the Blues who must learn to deal better with questionable refereeing decisions and the winding up from the opposition, as that will surely happen throughout the season.

Next up is a home match against Hollington United II next Saturday, where Sidley will hope to pick themselves up and get our season up and running.

Sidley Team: Rose, Cochrane, Tudor, Short, Foord, Day, Walker, Bailey, Carroll, Briscoe, Funnell. Sub: Rankin.

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