Lavant 9 Unicorn, Bognor Regis 0
nearly 17 months playing outside the village of Lavant, the football club finally returned and the 1st October marked their first home game on the new Raughmere Park pitch.
As part of the housing development by Sunley of the old top pitch, the football club had spent one full season playing their home match’s in Chichester on a council home pitch, whilst a new FA standard pitch was constructed in a field adjacent to the village hall, across from Pook Lane.
The new pitch after construction and seeding had to have two full growing seasons before the club could use the pitch. Additionally during this period the changing rooms located in the village hall were fully refurbished.
Finally the day was here to mark the start of a new era for the village football club and it started with a team photo with the clubs main sponsors Bleach of Lavant, who have recently celebrated 100 years as a local haulage company. Bleach of Lavant sponsors our men’s team and the newly launch youth team ensuring grass roots football remains strong within Lavant.
The first home fixture saw Lavant host the early season Premiership leaders the Unicorn from Bognor Regis, which on paper was a tough test for manager John Price’s young team.
The pitch, occasion or perhaps the spitfires circling overhead from Goodwood airdrome seemed to spur the team on right from kick-off and the home side were quick to make the most of the new full size, excellent quality pitch and took an early 2-0 lead within the opening 10 minutes of the game, totally shocking the league leaders. From there on, it was very much one-way traffic, as Lavant added another three goals, earning man of the match Levi Bentley his first hattrick for the club, and a goals each for Zac Moy and Jake O’Brennan, ensuring the homeside took a commanding 5-0 lead going into half time.
The second half should have been one of damage limitation for the visitors, but instead things just got worse as Lavant pressed the Unicorn goal straight from the restart adding a further four goals before the final whistle, a second half hattrick from Josh Castle and a second for Moy capped off a memorable performance by the full squad marking Lavant’s homecoming with a resounding 9-0 win.
Lavant Football club would like to thank Sunley Developments, Lavant Parish Council, Lavant Village Hall and the village volunteers for making the new pitch and refurbished facilities become reality.
Goals Scorers: Levi Bentley x3, Josh Castle x3, Zac Moy x2 & Jake O’Brennan x1
MOM: Levi Bentley
Team: Luke Terry, Danny Hillyer, Charles Selby (c), Jake O’Brennan, Matt little, Freddie Mercer, James Sandford, James Hubbard, Josh Castle, Zac Moy, Levi Bentley. Subs: Aaron Hancock, Harrison Mitchell, Adam Yaxley, Harvey Baker, Monty Morgan.
