The Lingers exit the Peter Bentley Cup at the hands of Steyning Town

Steyning took the lead when a long ball over the top caught out the Lingfield back line and saw an impressive Ross Adams slot the ball underneath Tony Jenner, a goal slightly against the run of play. The Lingers hit back when Sam Bell took a good touch before firing across the keeper, a snap-shot when under pressure, 1-1. Inexplicably, Steyning re-took the lead when a Steyning midfielder went down very softly in the area however a penalty was awarded and Adams smashed the ball into the roof of the net for his second of the evening. In a terrible 10 minutes prior to half time, Steynign extended their lead when the Steyning number 8 was allowed to run the length of the Lingfield half unchallenged and through the defence before tucking the ball away, a soft goal to concede. An uphill task was ahead of The Lingers in the second half and although they had over 60% of the possession and had Steyning camped in their own half, the goal was hard to come by with only Sam Bell guilty of missing a couple of good chances. The sucker punch came with 10 minutes to go when Steyning hit The Lingers on the break which was expected after pushing so many players forward. 4-1 flattered Steyning as they admitted on their Twitter but The Lingers need to be much harder to score against if they are to make a real push for promotion this season.

A disappointing result but not as bad as it looks on paper. The exit might be a blessing in disguise with recent fixture congestion and lots of Tuesday night away trips. The Lingers face Alresford Town in the FA Vase on Saturday before returning to league action next Tuesday against Ringmer at The Lair.

MOM - Tony Jenner
By - David Heaton