All of the action in this Sussex County League fixture at Church Road was squeezed into the final ten minutes of an otherwise forgettable encounter. 

Until those final minutes this game had goalless draw written all over it. City were without their regular forwards with Scott Tipper and Neil and Scott Murfin absent from the starting line up and were forced to use Russ Hardwell as their main striker with Callum Cutler continuing in his unfamiliar role up front. Alex Ward was back but not fully fit and Alex Brockway replaced his suspended cousin Adrian. Matt Smith was also absent but Jimmy Smith returned after injury as City manager, Adie Girdler was once again forced to reshuffle a depleted squad.

Crowborough in turn deployed a defensive set up that relied on numbers in midfield and the match turned into a pretty dour slog with neither side apparently very clear where the goals were or what purpose they served. Hardwell went closest for City with an effort that came back off the post but otherwise the first half passed uneventfully.

It looked as though the second period would produce more of the same. A couple of offside decisions caused some debate but there was no fluency to the play, no goalmouth incident and hardly a cross word until the game suddenly came to life with ten minutes left.

Danny Baker had tried a couple of efforts for the Crows without any success but when the visitors went ahead in the 80^th minute it looked like it was all over for City. A corner on the City right flipped across several heads to Nathan Godden at the far post and the big central defender headed in from a narrow angle.

Three points seemed to be on their way to Crowborough at that stage but straight from the restart City caught their visitors napping and Callum Cutler angled his shot past Kush Movaffagh in the visitors goal and it was all square again. It had been over five hours since City had last found the net.

Now it was game on, Wayne Clarke skimmed the City crossbar and Gary Smart claimed a header from Dave Adams as City struggled to defend a corner. The home side then wasted a free kick on the edge of the penalty area after substitute Neil Murfin was brought down.

Then with just two minutes remaining City pinched the points when Hardwell’s shot appeared to deceive Movaffagh and went past the keepers left hand into the net. Perhaps Movaffagh was unsighted by the setting sun but he didn’t react to the shot and now it was the Crows turn to chase the game.

There was just time to put pressure on the City goal at a corner but this time the home side scrambled the ball to safety and the points were secure.

Report written by Trevor Wallis

Chichester Team: Smart, Vongas, Hickman, Miah, Chamberlain, Angell, Ward, Brockway (Alex), Hardwell, Cutler, Smith J.
Subs: Murfin N. (used), Kelly, Corbin and Stimpson (not used)
Scorers: Cutler, Hardwell

Attendance: 44