Cowfold had to dig deep to hold a good Upper Beeding side after having to play for over an hour with 10 men. The game started fairly evenly with the visitors forcing the home keeper James Fisher into an early save down to his right. Cowfold created a couple of openings with captain Craig Deane firing over when well placed following a Tom Whiting corner and then Whiting himself cut in from the right before seeing his shot well saved. The ket moment in the game came on the half hour when Nigel Smith was sent off after following through on the goalkeeper. The keeper was clearly badly injured and all officials and players at Cowfold wish him a speedy recovery. Cowfold had to change their shape to cope with having 10 men and it seemed to galvanise them leading up to half time. They took the lead through an unlikely source when Ben Tucker's free kick missed everyone and drifted inside the far post. It was clear that the visitors would throw more people forward in the second half but the Cowfold defence were well organised and Mark Derbyshire, Ben Tucker and Sam Leach were outstanding. With everyone working really hard to close the ball down Upper Beeding found it difficult to create any real opportunities despite having the majority of the possession. Craig Deane and Ben Tarrant worked particularly hard in the middle of the park. In the end the home defence was beaten by a terrific header following a cross from the right wing and the points were shared.

As always a competitive game against a strong team and both teams were able to take away positives from their first game of the season.

Team: James Fisher, Dean Robinson, Sam Leach, Mark Derbyshire, Ben Tucker, Ben Tarrant, Tom Whiting, Craig Deane, Nigel Smith, James Wrigley, Dan Dalton. Subs: Tom Easton, Mike Nash.