Steyning target County League climb

Town moved out of the bottom two in Sussex County League Division 2, above Saturday’s opposition, and up to fourth from bottom.

Assistant manager Tom Gurney said: “We’re hoping that this will be the start of a good run, which will see us move up the table as we’ve got a run of winnable games coming up.

“We hadn’t been getting the results that we probably deserved but, on Saturday, we played well and got the result.”

Rustington’s Jubilee Field pitch passed a morning pitch inspection for the game to go ahead and it took Steyning just four minutes to take the lead.

Dave Harris delivered an excellent cross which Phil Williamson headed home at the back post for his 18th goal of the season.

Steyning dominated for the early part of the match but Rustington gradually came back into it and equalised on 35 minutes when Chris Kirkham lobbed Town keeper Matt Evans.

That was the way things stayed until half-time but Steyning regained the lead 10 minutes after the break when Murat Aslan volleyed past Blues stopper Charlie Gammons.

Williamson was then denied a second by the offside flag, before Steyning did go 3-1 ahead when Craig Knowles finished well after a solo run to net his 11th goal of the season.

Gurney added: “We won the physical battle in the first half, when our players kept their discipline well, and then went out and played some good football in the second half.

“There was not a point in the second half when I didn’t think that we would win the game.”