Sussex County FA Under-16s Representative squad made light work of their Middlesex County FA counterparts cruising to a 2-0 victory at Three Bridges FC in the South East Counties Youth Championship.

The change of venue for a home fixture, due to The FA People’s Cup taking place at Sussex County FA HQ, did little to disrupt the Sussex side, as Jake Hutchinson headed them into the lead midway through the first-half and Liam Brady wrapped up the points with a calm finish late on.

It was the visitors who had the first opportunity of the game though after just two minutes. Matthew Dones found space at the back post and fired low past Sussex goalkeeper Henry Lester only for Dylan Jelley to brilliantly block the ball on the line and onto the post before being cleared.

That early scare roused Sussex and after neat play by Brady he found Tom Chalaye just inside the penalty area, but his strike hit the side netting with Middlesex keeper Damian Pawlak scrambling across his goal.

With twenty four minutes on the clock the home side broke the deadlock. After good work down the right by Oliver Young his deep cross was expertly nodded back across goal and in by Hutchinson.

Minutes later Hutchinson nearly doubled his tally as he drove forward with the ball before unleashing a powerful drive that Pawlak did brilliantly to tip onto the bar and over.

Brady came close to extending Sussex’s lead just before the break as neat footwork opened up the space for him to shoot from twenty yards out, but the ball flew narrowly over the angle of post and crossbar.

Much like the first-half Middlesex had the first clear cut opportunity of the second period, Dones cross was met by the head of Rene Barnes but his effort clipped the post on its way wide.

From then on Sussex dominated proceedings but failed to create any notable openings until the game opened up in the final knockings.

Brady stung the palms of Pawlak with a rasping drive as the clock ticked down, and then in added time he met Young’s low cross into the box and coolly sweep the ball into the net, doubling the lead and sealing the points for Sussex.

After the match Sussex assistant manager Ian Brown said: “We had a change in shape today and that worked really well for us, plus a few new players involved who played very well which I’m pleased about. 

“It was a good solid team performance from us, and in the second-half I was really impressed because we stayed compact against a good side and limited them to very few chances.

“Everything we wanted to do worked out today, which was brilliant, and all the boys did exactly what I wanted from them, so overall I’m really pleased!”

(A selection of photographs can be found on Facebook - courtesy of Kyle Hemsley Photography)

Stats: (Sussex-Middlesex)
Goals: 2-0; Shots: 8-6; Shots-on-target: 5-3; Corners: 2-2; Fouls: 13-5; Offside: 3-3; Yellow cards: 0-0; Red cards 0-0.

Sussex: Lester, Jelley, Harper, Langford, Cocoracchio, Mthunzi, Collins, Young, Hutchinson, Chalaye, Brady.
Subs: Santos, Pool, Buchanon.

Middlesex: Pawlak, Essadoah, Heath, Mason, Lenihan, Bakry, Amoah, Mills, Francis, Novak, Dones.
Subs: Deacon, Thomas-Gaye, Barnes, Swaby.

Match report by Darren Ford