Midhurst visited Loxwood in the first round of the Sussex Senior Cup on Saturday with an experimental side and Manager John Suter was the first to admit that the chosen formation did not complement the players and Loxwood took full advantage, racing into a 4-0 half time lead. Top scorer Lewis Hamilton, skipper Scott Dormer and Dan Watts were on the bench with George Morris, Nathan Hunt and Keith Martin unavailable and Greg Chaplin and Oli Lee unfit. This meant that Alex Brazier, Ben Kemplen and Nehniah McKenley-Burke were all handed their first starts of the season. But with Brazier getting injured and coming off after 25 minutes, and Kemplen and Mckenley-Burke playing in unfamiliar positions, Midhurst were all at sea and were thankful to keeper Aaron Jeal for his penalty save on the stroke of half time, and to some erratic finishing by Loxwood, that the score was only 4-0 at the break. The goals were scored by Cave (22), Ramsey (24), House (35) and Raman (41).
However the second half was a totally different story (literally a game of two halves) as Midhurst, with a new shape and both remaining subs deployed, dominated throughout and should have scored within the first few minutes when Dormer released Hamilton with just the keeper to beat, but he was up to the challenge and managed to block Hamilton’s goal bound shot. History was repeated 15 minutes later when Hamilton got free again and the keeper managed to block his shot again. Gary Norgate then headed over the bar prior to him scoring Midhurst’s only goal of the game, latching onto a Watt’s through ball and slotting home from close range. Finally, Kemplen broke through but he too was thwarted by the keeper. And then, with Midhurst pressing to try and bring respectability to the score, Loxwood broke quickly down their left and House scored his second of the game.

Team: Jeal, Casselton, Broughton (Dormer 45) Grantham, May, Brazier (Watts 25), Kemplen, Hyde, Mckenley-Burke, Norgate, Sheldrick (Hamilton 45).
Unused sub: Tom Chaplin