City wins and clean sheets keep coming
Chichester City consolidated fourth spot in the Isthmian south east table with a convincing 4-0 victory away to fellow play-off hopefuls Lancing.
Mo Jammeh and Isaac Bello struck in the first half before Bello added a second after the break and Emmett Dunn wrapped things up late on in this A27 derby as Miles Rutherford’s men recorded a seventh win and clean sheet on the bounce.
Jammeh was wiped out in a clash with Sam Bull on 23. Both players were okay in the end after a bit of treatment, and it was the Chi player who opened the scoring, at the second time of asking, on 25 minutes after a slip by Bull.
Three minutes later the visitors doubled their advantage as Bello tucked home from close range, again at the second time of asking, when Rob Hutchings delivered from the left.
Referee Tom Baines dismissed someone from the Lancing dugout in the early stages of the second half.
Bello made it 3-0 after an impressive move just before the hour.
Tremendous skill from Lloyd Rowlatt – back playing after a long injury lay-off – allowed him to spin one opponent and then another and find Dunn for Chi’s fourth at the ground where the Canadian grabbed his first Chi goal back in the county league – making it eight clean sheets on the spin for City .
Chi City 2 Littlehampton 0
City extended their unbeaten run to 11 games on Monday as skipper Josh Clack and Jimmy Wild scored to complete a league double over the Marigolds.
That’s nine clean sheets on the bounce now in a run where Wild has netted nine times for Miles Rutherford’s play-off contenders.
As expected, City started on the front foot and you felt a goal was coming – and it did on 14 minutes, Clack supplying the finish after a sharp move and cross by Wild.
It might have been 1-1 60 seconds later when Ollie Starkey took on Hutchings and teed up Nodirbek Bobomurodov who fired his shot just over.
Miles Rutherford’s men continued to have the best of the game and into the second half, it was 2-0 as Wild got on the end of Ben Pashley’s searching free-kick and converted.
Ethan Prichard found the back of the net on 83 minutes but it was chalked off, before a through ball to Wild was played too hard.
For Littlehampton, Josh Short fired a wild shot off target in time added on, and could have done better from close range with practically the last kick of the game.
Chi, sitting nicely in fourth place, welcome Erith & Belvedere to Oaklands Park next on Saturday.
In the SCFL premier division, Pagham took four points out of six over Easter – winning 4-2 at Shoreham on Saturday before drawing 1-1 at home to Midhurst on Monday.
For the Stags, that was their only point of the holiday weekend, following a 5-0 loss at home to leaders Steyning Town on Saturday.
In Division 1, Selsey beat Godalming 4-3 in a thriller at the High Street Ground.