Bexhill slump to foot of table in manager's last game

The Polegrove side suffered their sixth loss from the last seven matches in what turned out to be Bill Trivett's last game in charge.

"We certainly looked as though we lacked a bit of quality," said Trivett, who handed in his resignation on Friday but stayed in the dug-out to help new boss Gerard Moyse.

"We lacked firepower and we made three bad mistakes in front of our own goal.

"But I felt elsewhere on the pitch we were equally matched to them. The effort was there and I couldn't fault the lads that played. They kept their discipline and they gave it 100 per cent."

Effort alone wasn't sufficient for Bexhill, however, against a side lying second in the table. The game was as good as over within the first half-an-hour, by which time the Haywards Heath-based side had opened up a three-goal lead.

Sam Jeremiah rounded Bexhill goalkeeper Adam Taylor to open the scoring in the 15th minute.

Phil Gault doubled their advantage eight minutes later with a lofted shot and Elliott Butler exploited defensive hesitation to make it 3-0 after 27 minutes.

Chris Cook added a fourth within a minute of the second half before United pulled one back when Danny Collins headed in a corner.

Substitute Mark Enticknap completed the rout with St Francis' fifth goal and the 19th that Bexhill have conceded in the last four games in addition to the 12 they shipped in the three games prior to that.

Bexhill, whose cause wasn't helped by the pre-match withdrawals of Steve Mote and Sam Thompson plus the serious knee ligament damage sustained by Dan Couch during the fixture, ended the match with 17-year-old substitute goalkeeper James Firman playing in an outfield position.

Bexhill: Taylor, Storrs, Anderson, Quinn, Couch (Chapman), Fletcher, Witham, R. Mote, Cochrane (Firman), Collins, Dunstall.