Hythe Town 3-2 Steyning Town Community - Today was about who wanted to win the most, we needed that win and they've gone and done it for us, says Hythe Town assistant Damien Hopkins

Hythe Town 3 – 2 Steyning Town Community
Location	Reachfields Stadium, off Fort Road, Hythe, Kent CT21 6JS
Kickoff	23/11/2024 15:00

HYTHE TOWN  3-2  STEYNING TOWN COMMUNITY
Isthmian League South East Division
Saturday 23 November 2024
Stephen McCartney reports from Reachfields Stadium

HYTHE TOWN assistant manager Damien Hopkins says his side looked like a proper team today after winning a poor Isthmian League South East Division relegation dog-fight against Steyning Town Community.

Last season’s Southern Combination League Premier Division champions are finding it tough during their maiden campaign in the eighth-tier and Gerry Murphy’s side extended their winless run to 12 games.  The Barrowmen last tasted victory in a 2-1 win over Hythe Town on 28 September.

The Cannons claimed their third league win of the season with a 3-0 home win over Lancing on 26 October and Lancing sacked their manager Jamie Hollis the following day.

Nick Davis’s side have only picked up one point since then, losing 3-0 at Deal Town, before coming away from Herne Bay with a 1-1 draw, before back-to-back defeats at home to Sevenoaks Town (2-4) and a 3-0 defeat at Erith Town last weekend.

Steyning Town Community took a fourth minute lead through right-wing-back Ed Kazalauskas before Hythe Town restored parity on the stroke of half-time through right-winger Ellis Brown.

Attacking midfielder Vance Bola notched his first goal for the Kent club and Steyning Town Community lost their left-wing-back Billy Fuller to a straight red-card for alleged foul and abusive language at the match officials before the Sussex side re-started.

Former Crowborough Athletic winger Harvey Killick levelled before Brown, 29, scored his fourth goal for Hythe Town, with an emphatic injury time winner, on a miserable wet and windy and chilly day at Reachfields Stadium.

Hythe Town’s Results at Reachfields Stadium in games covered by this website over the past three years:

Saturday 4 September 2021 – Ascot United – Won 1-0 – FA Cup First Qualifying Round
Saturday 5 March 2022 – Ashford United – Lost 1-2 – League
Wednesday 27 April 2022 – Folkestone Invicta – Lost 0-2 – Kent Senior Cup Semi-Final

Tuesday 23 August 2022 – Raynes Park Vale – Won 5-4 (aet) – FA Cup Preliminary Round Replay
Saturday 19 November 2022 – Lancing – Won 3-1 – League
Saturday 25 February 2022 – Three Bridges – Drew 1-1 – League

Saturday 12 August 2023 – East Grinstead Town – Won 4-0 – League
Tuesday 3 October 2023 – Ashford United – Drew 2-2 – League
Tuesday 31 October 2023 – Ramsgate – Won 3-1 – FA Trophy First Round
Saturday 18 November 2023 – Tonbridge Angels – Drew 0-0 (Hythe Town win 3-1 on penalties) – FA Trophy Second Round
Tuesday 12 December 2023 – Whitehawk – Won 3-2 – FA Trophy Third Round
Saturday 13 January 2024 – Chorley – Lost 1-2 – FA Trophy Fourth Round
Saturday 3 February 2024 – Ramsgate – Drew 2-2 – League

Saturday 26 October 2024 – Lancing – Won 3-0 – League
Saturday 23 November 2024 – Steyning Town Community – Won 3-2 - League

Hythe Town were without central midfielder Siao Blackwood, who was serving a one-match ban having picked up five yellow cards and Medy Elito was substituted following the winning goal after suffering a bang to the head.

“Well, an absolutely rollercoaster of a game really,” said Hopkins, who was sent out by Davis for post-match media duties.

“A couple of individual errors have cost us a couple of goals, in the conditions that I don’t think your report’s ever going to do justice.

“But I mean Ellis Brown’s certainly makes amends with a winning goal at the end there. It’s one we needed to win, we had to win and we did.

“I said before the game, whoever wanted to win the game more today would win the game. It had to be done. We’ve got absolutely quality players in there, they’ve got some good players in their team but today was about who wanted to win the most. We needed that and they’ve gone and done it for us.”

Steyning Town started the game on the front foot and opened the scoring after only three minutes and 50 seconds on the clock.

Recalled Hythe Town holding midfielder David Ozobia gave the ball away inside his own half before Killick switched the play with a fine diagonal from left to right for wing-back Kazalauskas to hit a right-footed drive from 20-yards, which deflected off Ollie Gray and looped into the roof of the net into the centre of goal.

“It sort of sums our team here up to be honest,” admitted Hopkins.

“I’ll have to look at it back, you can probably see we’ve conceded a lot of goals in the first 5-10 minutes of games.

“David’s been away for two weeks, he went on holiday during the season. Siao Blackwood’s suspended. Ideally, Siao would’ve been playing today and we could’ve eased Dave back in from his holiday but it’s frustrating we’re in the position that we’re in and individual errors are costing us.

“When you’re at the top end of the table, that pass that goes astray doesn’t hurt you. When you’re down where we are, any little error is costing us. It’s frustrating but at least we showed proper character this time to get back.”

Hythe Town put in a laboured response.  They played out from the back, lacked ideas on how to break down a high line of five Steyning defenders and the home side’s central midfield area of Ozobia and Elito were often vacant.

Hopkins said: “It was slow. I think they were more physical in midfield. I think we probably had better of the ball in midfield but it was slow and we were getting frustrated on the sidelines that it was slow as it was.

“We came in at half-time and one or two of the players said ‘look, the conditions are dictating the speed of the play’ and we sort of put our trust in them and that’s the one thing we can’t do from the side of the pitch, we can’t see exactly what it’s like out there.

“It was a little bit slow and frustrating for us but once we sort of clocked the way to go, we got the right-back (Procopi) out and once we worked that out and we were getting out in wide areas, it was alright.”

Danny Howick – who plays in the centre of Steyning’s three central defenders – hit a ball into the final third, a poor first touch from Bola set up Jack Barnes, whose first time left-footed drive sailed high and wide of the far post from 25-yards.

Hythe Town started to show some desire in the 20^th minute, creating a couple of chances in the space of 33 seconds.

Firstly, right-back Louie Procopi threw the ball into the box where the always excellent centre-half Lex Allan knocked the ball down for striker Danny Parish to sweep his first-time shot past the foot of the near-post.

Brown then played the ball out to winger Tushaun Tyresse-Walters, who fed Parish, who cut onto his left-foot and his low angled drive was comfortably saved low to his left by visiting goalkeeper Nathan Stroomberg-Clarke.

“We played Erith last week and we didn’t make the goalie make a save, so we’ve probably had three or four shots on target in the first half today, which is big for us,” said Hopkins, who believes Parish will start scoring, having gone six games without a goal since his move to the Kent coast.

“Danny Parish doesn’t need any introduction to this level. He’s coming back from an injury and he wants to get into positions and he wants to score goals and you can see his movement and his desire to get in those positions and he’s made the goalkeeper make two saves in the first half, which we’ve been screaming out for. We need to make goalie’s make saves.”

Steyning Town missed a glorious chance to grab a second goal (24:38) when a deep Bola gifted possession and was intercepted by three-goal striker Charlie Meehan, who unleashed a right-footed drive into Joe Coleman’s midriff from 22-yards, for a comfortable save.

“Giving the ball away has been a story of our past few weeks,” admitted Hopkins.

“I’ve worked with a lot of goalie’s over the years and Joe is up there. His hands, especially in the conditions, unbelievable.  When the ball is smashed at you like that, it’s easy, in these conditions, to bobble out and Joe’s hands are great.”

Hopkins explained why Bola was playing in the number 10 role behind Parish.

“Vance is very good with the football. We signed him as a number nine. We’ve played him up there as a nine and he runs the channels and he held the ball for us ever so well. By the time he came in we had Jahmal Hector-Ingram, who has since gone to Sheppey, who was up there, trying to hold it up.  Vance came in and did it really well.

“We played Deal in a cup game and he dropped into the 10 and looked unbelievable there and since Riley Court’s gone back to Maidstone, Vance has filled those shoes.  Vance has got good experience at this level and the level above and is a good footballer and in the right areas he really hurts teams.”  

But despite playing with a lack of desire and ideas, Hythe Town created the better goalscoring chances and Stroomberg-Clarke was the busier of the two goalkeepers.

Hythe Town missed a glorious chance to equalise in the 28^th minute.

Elito played the ball along the deck to Bola, who cut inside centre-half Harry Shooman before drilling a low right-footed angled drive, which was parried by Stroomberg-Clarke, diving low to his right and the ball came out to high left-back Tom Carlse, who hit his left-footed half-volley over the crossbar from six-yards.

“I sort of said from the side, should that be a header there but it’s happened so quick,” said Hopkins.

“Tom’s highly critical of himself and everyone around him. He will think he should’ve done better there but again a goalie’s had to make a save and we’ve had half-a-chance from it.”

Carlse’s miss appeared to knock the stuffing out of Hythe Town and Kazalauskas had another chance to score from outside the box, but his right-footed drive from 25-yards – after Barnes’ stabbed lay-off – was comfortably saved by Coleman, preventing the ball nestling inside the bottom left-hand corner.

Allan switched a long ball over to the right-wing and Parish fed Procopi on an overlapping run and his left-footed angled drive was parried by the Steyning Town goalkeeper, once again diving to his right.

Hythe Town deserved their equaliser when it came with a moment of quality, timed at 42 minutes and 14 seconds on the clock.

A high Carlse put the ball into a crowded penalty area and Brown clinically placed his left-footed shot across the rooted goalkeeper to find the far corner from 15-yards on the angle.

“From where I was standing, we were right behind it and it looked like a great strike,” said Hopkins.

“Ellis cut inside onto his left, I thought he was going to try to slot a pass and it’s a great time to score isn’t it, absolutely a great time to score.

“It was a great goal, another really, really good lad. He’s been a big plus since he’s come in and I think he’s our top scorer already.”

Bola then released Brown down the right and the winger was left in space and his cross was tipped onto the crossbar by Stroomberg-Clarke’s outstretched fingertips and dropped behind for the home side’s second of four corners.

“Like I said, a good time to score and it would’ve been an even better to have grabbed that second one,” added Hopkins, who was asked what was said in the warm home dressing room during the interval, as Murphy hooked the ineffective former Crowborough Athletic targetman Lucas Murrain at the break, as playing in the number 10 role behind Meehan didn’t work.

“Not a lot to be honest. We addressed the little errors. We made sure everyone’s on the same page with the shape that we were playing and what we were trying to do.

“We just said the pitch is an absolute equaliser, go out there, as long as we give everything, we will get something from the game and we wanted a win. We needed a win and that’s all that we said really.  There was no screaming or shouting.”

Steyning Town went route-one and were to be denied the lead by a big save from Coleman, just 237 seconds into the second half.

Stroomberg-Clarke launched a big kick over the top of Allan and this put Meehan through on goal but Coleman smothered the shot low to his left to tip the ball behind for the first of four corners from the Sussex outfit.

“That one ball, that one ball, we’ve had a bit of a problem with it and it’s just not us.  We keep saying to the boys that everyone wants to play football and do things nice and pretty but that one ball hurst teams and it nearly hurt us,” admitted Hopkins.

“Joe’s really up there with some of the better lads that I’ve worked with, up with the best really.  He’s good. If people go through one-v-one with him and we’re thinking Joe’s going to save it and he did. We had to address that one ball.”

Bola cut back the home side’s final corner (17:10) and Tyresse-Walters cracked a left-footed angled drive, which was comfortably saved into Stroomberg-Clarke’s midriff as his team-mates failed to come out and press.

Hythe Town grabbed the lead with 24 minutes and 46 seconds on the clock.

Brown and Procopi linked up well down the right and the ball was cleared back out to Procopi, who recycled the ball back into the box and Bola swept his right-footed shot across the keeper to find the bottom far corner from six-yards.

Referee Joshua Langley-Fineing pulled out a straight red card and sent Fuller off in the aftermath (25:47), just before Steyning Town re-started the game from the centre spot.

Hopkins said: “It was controversial from there point of view, they were all screaming ‘offside’ and obviously they’ve had a man sent off in protesting it but the flag didn’t go up.

“Vance is left six yards with just the goalie to beat and he’s done that, which is what he’s on the pitch to do.

“Louie Procopi, by the way, was absolutely fantastic today and it was great that he was involved in that goal. He’s a real prospect, so it was nice that he was involved and it was really nice to see Vance put the ball in the back of the net.”

Hopkins admitted playing against 10 men was a hinderance rather than a help.

“We’ve struggled against 10 men recently. We have been the team with 10 men and teams have struggled against us and they went down to 10 and it didn’t help us at all, no, not at all.

“When we’ve had people sent off recently and you’ve gone down to 10, we’ve become more disciplined. I don’t know what it is, it’s a mind-set thing.  You go down to 10 and all off a sudden (players think), ‘I’ve got to do my job properly now’, - I don’t think it helps.”

Elito played a 25-yard pass along the muddy pitch into Carlse, who released a high Procopi, who drilled a low right-footed drive towards the bottom near-corner from 20-yards, which was comfortably saved by the busy Stoomberg-Clarke, as the game entered the final 15 minutes.

Steyning Town caused more of a threat with 10 players on the pitch and Hythe Town’s substitute winger Anthony Adesite lost the ball to a pressing Ross Edwards some 35-yards from goal and Barnes’ left-footed drive from 30-yards was saved by Coleman at the second attempt, to prevent the ball nestling inside the bottom left-hand corner.

Steyning Town grabbed an equaliser with 39 minutes and 19 seconds on the clock.

The Cannons were playing out from the back and worked the ball to Brown, who had his pocket picked by Barnes some 35-yards from goal and the captain released Killick in behind an AWOL Procopi and his clinical left-footed shot found the bottom near corner, past a rooted Coleman.

“I saw Harvey today for the first time in years.  He was a young lad at Hollands & Blair years ago when I was there,” said Hopkins.

“Another mistake. It sort of sums things up for us.  You’re looking at it and you’re thinking ‘No!’  There’s nothing you can do on the side and it’s just one of those things.

“Everything that Ellis has done for us, he’s been fantastic and it’s just one of those things. It was a good finish, a really good finish.”

Steyning Town then had a couple of decent chances to claim their third league win of the season.

Firstly, Calum Pollitt put in a right-footed free-kick into the box from just outside the corner of the penalty area, and Elito stuck out his right leg and sliced his clearance towards his own goal, forcing Coleman to dive to his right to make a fine reaction save to tip the ball around his post (41:40).

“They had a few set-pieces, two or three in a row. You see the ball come in, you hear the deflection, see Joe get across and it was a good save. Joe’s a good lad,” added Hopkins, a goalkeeper.”

Attacking midfielder Pollitt then swung in the resulting corner from the left and Killick found a pocket of space to flick his header just inches over the crossbar (42:47)

Hythe Town’s Gray came up from the back to drill a right-footed shot just past the foot of the left-hand post from 35-yards (45:57).

Hythe Town snatched a big three points with 46 minutes and 33 seconds on the clock – the final whistle was blown at 50:41.

Elito swept the ball out to Brown on the right and he drilled an emphatic right-footed shot into the top right-hand (near) corner from 25-yards, as Shooman (who switched to left-back following the red-card) came out to press him.

“I think it gets us out of jail but it’s redemption really,” admitted Hopkins.

“I think he owed himself that. He’s better than the way he gave the ball away, he’s much better than that.  He’s from levels above, unbelievable!

“He said it might’ve taken a deflection on the way through but I was stunned to be honest. I didn’t realise it had gone in. I literally didn’t realise it had gone in!

“I was watching Medy go down – I think Medy’s hurt his head – I turned to try to get Abi Winstanley up (to treat him) and then Nick’s jumping on my back – I saw him hit the ball but I didn’t realise it had gone in!

“Medy Elito makes things happen in the middle of the pitch. Yes, the conditions are bad, we needed him on the ball and what he did well was he went out into areas of the pitch that wasn’t as cut up, so he could get on the ball and try to hurt from there. I think Medy has been unbelievable – I think he’s driven the side on today.

“Game plan wise, we wanted to keep the ball. We want to give it to our footballers and we sort of sacrificed holding midfielders, so we’ve got more ball players in there, so it was a tough game but I think we tried to stick to our game plan as best as we possibly could.”

After the post-match interview, Hopkins hugged Brown, who left the stadium at half-past five to drive up the motorway and will be a key player to guide the Hythe Town towards safety.

Hopkins said: “One of the things we’ve always been about, is trying to get the right people in changing rooms and he is a good guy. He’s played levels above.  Clubs have been in for him since he’s been here, hopefully, he’s staying with us.

“He’s so direct, he’s a bit old fashioned. He’s a right-footed winger who wants to play on the right. Most of them want to play the other way around now, so they want to cut in and do things with their stronger foot.”

When asked about his side’s performance, Hopkins replied: “I don’t think in the conditions, you can give more than they gave.  I think we’ve just had individuals’ great performances and we looked like a proper team today.”

Hythe Town and Three Bridges were the only winners in the bottom seven today.

Littlehampton Town – who come to the Kent coast next Saturday – are in sixteenth-place in the table with 15 points, followed by Steve Lovell’s Herne Bay (14 points from 14 games) and then it’s Hythe Town with 13 points (four wins and a draw) from their 17 games.

The relegation zone contains Three Bridges (12 points from 14 games), Lancing (seven points from 16 games), Steyning Town Community (seven points from 17 games) and Darren Anslow’s Phoenix Sports remain rooted to the foot of the table with seven points from 17 games.

“We keep saying there’s a lot of games left to go (25).  You can’t ignore the league position but there are a lot of league games to go and we’ve got Littlehampton next week and Three Bridges the week after and hopefully we can build some momentum.  There’s no gimmes in this league at all, not anymore,” said Hopkins, who was then asked how many points he needs to pick up to avoid being one of the four relegated sides.

“One more than the person in fourth-from-bottom, that’s how many.  Nick’s a winner and he’s one of my best friends and I want to win with him. We don’t want to be scraping the last day of the season one point to escape. We want to try to get a little bit of consistency and push up that league. I think it’s going to be tight.”

Littlehampton Town lost 3-2 at home to eighth-placed Merstham, who knocked Beckenham Town off the top of the table with a 4-2 win at home last weekend.

Hopkins, who runs an electrician business, said: “We’ve had them watched a few times. Ashford’s assistant manager (Dean Beckwith) works for me and he’s given me a little bit of information about them.  They played them the other week (12 November) and Ashford were 2-0 down to them within 12 minutes (before Ashford went on to win 3-2).

“We need to make sure that we’re right before we worry about anyone else. We need to make sure we need to match the work-rate of everyone we play. Match the work rate and beat the work rate and we’ll beat them. If we get out worked then we’re in trouble but if we match work-rate with the people we’ve got in our changing room and the people we’ve got on the side of the pitch who can come on and change games for us, we’ll be alright.

“If we can get a little bit of momentum going then that’s what we haven’t had. We haven’t followed a win with a win.”

Davis, meanwhile, has been in charge of 20 games in all competitions, with three wins, two draws and 15 defeats on the board.

Hopkins said: “It’s hard because what we came into, when you’re trying to build a team, there’s a lot of changes with the personnel and we’ve got people in the changing room now, got people on the pitch who are ever so good footballers but you don’t make a team overnight.  You can have a squad of great players but it doesn’t make a team and today they looked like one and that was massive.”

Hythe Town: Joe Coleman, Louie Procopi, Tom Carlse, David Ozobia, Lex Allan, Ollie Gray, Tushaun Tyresse-Walters (Sammi Takalobighashi 83), Medy Elito (Harry Rowland 90), Danny Parish (D’Jean Spencer 77), Vance Bola (Anthony Adesite 77), Ellis Brown.
Sub: Amadeus Adotey

Goals: Ellie Brown 43, 90, Vance Bola

Steyning Town Community: Nathan Stroomberg-Clarke, Ed Kazalauskas (Nathan Da Costa 58), Billy Fuller, Danny Howick, Harry Shooman, Robert Malila, Harvey Killick, Jack Barnes, Charlie Meehan, Lucas Murrain (Calum Pollitt 46), Ross Edwards.
Subs: Evan Hoarty, Richmond Osei, Cavan Gratwick

Goals: Ed Kazalauskas 4, Harvey Killick 85

Booked: Jack Barnes 55, Nathan Stroomberg-Clarke 71

Sent Off: Billy Fuller 71

Attendance: 127
Referee: Mr Joshua Langley-Fineing
Assistants: Mr Benjamin Marshall & Mr Michael Corderoy