Resounding win takes gr-eight Rustington top

Stephen Kirkham struck twice in Rustington's resounding win last night. Picture by Derek Martin

Doubles from Chris Darwin, who made it 11 goals in eight matches, striker Stephen Kirkham and substitute Carl Bennett put Blues on the way to an emphatic 8-0 victory at Littlehampton FC’s Sportsfield home.

Jon Tucker’s team went into the meeting with rivals Clymping in third but victory was enough to take them top and open up a two-point cushion over place-below Roffey having played two games less.

Blues boss Tucker, whose side have lost just once in the league all season and are still in with a chance of the treble, is refusing to get carried away.

He said: “We’ve still got a long way to go, with plenty of games left to play.

“We played very well against Clymping and if we continue to play as we have in the past two matches we will be very hard to beat.”

Striker Kirkham got the opener on 20 minutes to put Blues on their way.

Blues’ opener opened the floodgates as they netted a further four times before the break.

Darwin got his first of the match on the half-hour mark, then Kirkham netted for a second time soon after.

Darwin added a fourth five minutes before the break, then Liam O’Connor got in on the act in first half stoppage-time.

Blues started the second period 5-0 ahead but were not done there.

Midfielder Aaron Hooker-Meehan wasted no time, striking Blues’ sixth less than a minute after the restart.

Bennett then had an impact off the bench. He made it seven 20 minutes from time, before rounding off the scoring 13 minutes later.

Clymping manager Daniel Lawrence admitted his side could not cope with a far superior Rustington.

He said: "Rustington have a way of playing that suits them. They were stronger, quicker and just purely wanted it more. We needed to adapt to the way they were playing but we just didn’t do it quick enough."

RUSTINGTON: Yeates; J.Bennett, MacIver, John, Miles; Hudson, Hooker-Meehan, O’Connor; Jenkins, Kirkham, Darwin. Subs: Heater (Kirkham, 35), C.Bennett (Darwin, 65), Hurst (Hudson, 80).

CLYMPING: Brook-Marsh; Minter, Gibbins, Black, Hodder, Varza, Schwar, Potts, Precious, Foxon, Callaghan. Subs: Leggatt (Minter), Humphrey (Hodder).