Terrible first half - but Hollington find rhythm to see off Cuckfield
Cuckfield drew first blood early on with a fantastic long range header from a set piece. Despite a tepid first half display completely devoid of quality the Lions found themselves 2-1 to the good at the interval courtesy of a deflected Liam Upton strike and a powerful Fabio Pao free kick.
The hosts eventually got themselves going and with a couple of enforced changes they began to move up the gears. Patrick Kairaa sparked into life scoring a wonderful 3rd goal with a slaloming run and composed finish and for a while Kairaa was almost unplayable. It was his cross from the right flank that was met by the head of Pao who timed his run to perfection to notch his 2nd and Hollington’s 4th of the afternoon.
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Hide AdCuckfield, who showed plenty of character and endeavour, were rewarded with a scruffy consolation shortly before Pao missed a glorious chance to compete his hat trick.
Manager Asher Grindle said: “The first half was as bad as I’ve seen us to be honest and I let that be known at half time. The lads responded well in the 2nd half and produced a much improved performance with some moments of real flair and quality.
"We are a new side and still have a Jekyll and Hyde element to us at the moment and if we want to be successful this season we are going to need play with a lot more focus and consistency. We can’t simply turn up away at Balcombe next week playing how we did in the first half or we will be in for a long old afternoon.”