Mussels hurt by pacy Peacehaven

Looking at this season’s form, goals looked a given, and if you were a neutral, it didn’t disappoint. The visitors, with an extremely quick front three, always looked a danger, and duly were in the 5-1 triumph.

A frenetic start from both sides saw former Mussels striker Charlie Walker open the scoring after just seven minutes with a free header, as the visitors took advantage of Lee Eastman’s heavy fall, with the full-back being substituted immediately after conceding.

A flurry of bookings from the overly-fussy Colin Mallows followed before the hosts equalised in the 29th minute as Liam O’Brien glanced home a Mark Pulling free kick, in what proved to be the high point of Shoreham’s evening.

Peacehaven restored their lead on 36 minutes as Walker once again evaded his marker to power a header against the bar from a corner, another former Mussel, Ryan Bradley also hit the bar with the follow-up header, and Walker was on hand to nod home from close range.

Mussels’ goalkeeper James Shaw’s evening then took a turn for the worse with two minutes left of the half as he misjudged a cross that allowed the much-travelled Carl Dunk to head home the visitors’ third of the evening.

It could have been a lot worse for Shoreham in the 57th minute when Dan Jordan appeared to trip Bradley when clean through, which would have meant a penalty and a certain red for the home defender, but the referee claimed that Jordan got the ball, and presumably with it an invitation to join the Fantastic Four as Elastic Man.

Peacehaven did grab a fourth goal in the 66th minute, however, as they broke quickly from a Shoreham corner, and some neat interplay on the halfway line saw Joe Dryer clean through and Shaw inexplicably rushing out to make the Peacehaven winger’s finish easier than it should have been.

With 10 minutes remaining the visitors added a fifth as Callum Saunders broke down the right to fire past a static Shaw and compound Mussels’ misery.

Shoreham boss Mark Burt said:: “We were beaten by the better side tonight. We struggled to deal with their pace up front and the keeper made his first mistakes of the season, when he’s been so good up until now.

“There’s no point being downbeat about it, they are going to be up at the top of the table at the end of the season.”