Gander pleased with Lancers’ performance despite defeat

LANCING Football Club manager Martin Gander was pleased with how his side responded against Horsham YMCA on Tuesday night after defeat at strugglers AFC Uckfield last week.
W17250H13 Lancing v St FrancisW17250H13 Lancing v St Francis
W17250H13 Lancing v St Francis

Two late goals from YMCA gave their victory over Lancers a rather flattering look after Wayne Joseph had pulled Lancers level.

But Gander insisted the performance was the important thing for him after having gone down 4-1 against Uckfield.

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He said: “We were very unlucky considering we had a challenge to make up the side.

“We went up there and played very well. I wanted a performance as I was critical last week when we were poor against Uckfield.

“It was important to do well and put in a performance. If we came away with something, I think we would have deserved it, but the performance and way we played was the most important thing.”

Lancers rested a few players who are on duty for the Sussex representative side this week and with the reserve team facing a cup final, didn’t want to disadvantage them, either.

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Darren Boswell and Elliott Joseph had both gone close before Elliot Romain opened the scoring for the hosts on 37 minutes. He raced onto a ball after a Jason Tighe mistake and finished well.

But Joseph netted with a fine left-foot volley on 62 minutes which flew into the side netting.

Dan Turner then had a shot blocked before the hosts retook the lead with five minutes remaining.

A deep free kick was headed back across goal and Romain nodded home.

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A unwarranted gloss was put on the scoreline with just a couple of minutes remaining as George Fenton put in a tackle on the edge of the area and it flew into the top corner for a freak own goal.

Gander added: “That killed us and it was a real spectacular one.

“We didn’t deserve that, if we had lost 2-1 then fair enough and it sounds silly, but 3-1 makes it look a lot better for them.”

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