Lavant march into cup semis as Chilt wilt

The Yellows started extremely well, dictating possession and territorially with the midfield trio of Dave Knight, Aaron Hancock and James Brooks dominating the centre of the park.

With Lavant well into their stride the deadlock was broken on the 15-minute mark as a well-delivered cross from full-back Jon Wright was glanced home by the late-arriving Hancock.

It wasn’t long until the lead was doubled with Knight collecting the ball just inside the area to fire home low to the keeper’s right.

Lavant continued to press and Hancock got his second after being played in and emphatically finishing into the roof of the net.

With half-time drawing near, Knight got his second of the match. Picking up on a poor clearance from the West Chiltington keeper, Knight converted from 35 yards with a delightful curling left-footed effort that saw Lavant take a resounding 4-0 lead into the break.

The second half started with Lavant wanting to keep it tight and not give West Chiltington any opportunity to get back in the tie.

With five minutes played it was 4-1 following some scrappy defending by the home side and Gary Weedon floating the ball over the flat-footed Sanson.

Lavant again settled and were then gifted a glorious opportunity to further their lead as James Sandford was felled in the area. But Brook’s penalty was saved and he fired over from the rebound.

But Lavant soon after found the net again and it was Sandford on the scoresheet this time with a diving header at the near post.

With minutes left to play, Lavant made it six with two substitutes combining. A well-delivered left wing cross by Stuart Loversidge found veteran Mike Neville at the back post and he headed home in style.

In the semi-finals Lavant take on Arundel reserves at Lavant village green on February 21.

LAVANT: Sanson, Gabb, Wright, Batten, Lyttle, Knight, Hancock, Brooks, Baker, Haggar, Sandford. Subs: Coe, Neville, Loversidge.

Wittering Res 5 Chapel 1

Division four south

Wittering recorded their first on-field win of the season – they had benefitted from a walkover – against a very poor Chapel side who looked what they were, a team who had not played for eight weeks.

Poor defending enabled Wittering to go 3-0 up at half-time and add two more in the first ten minutes of the second half.

Dan Scutt reduced the arrears on 65 minutes and this triggered Chapel’s best spell of the game but Wittering defended well.