Vs. Hastings Rangers III (A)
Starting XI	Substitutes:
Simon Cutler
Chris Mammone (c)
Wes Longley
Bryan Leggett
Seb Elliott
Anthony Hunter	(45 Loksan Harley)
Stuart Calderwood	(79 Steve Mumford)
Ollie Jeffs
Jack Hunter	(60 Iain Henning)
Jake Wilkinson
Josh Mullett
Referee: R Tate
Goal: Elliott (9).
HT Score: 1-2
FT Score: 1-4

The second team suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of Hastings Rangers despite having taken the lead early on.

A positive start from the men in orange led to an early strike inside ten minutes from Seb. The ball fell to him from a move down the right and his effort from twenty-five yards was deflected in off a Hastings defender.

Having dominated the first passage of play, the Baptists were then on the back foot when Rangers had a five minute spell of pressure that resulted in a seventeenth minute equaliser. Having resisted a couple of corners, the Battle side failed to close down a right-wing cross and in a desperate attempt to stop the Rangers striker heading in, the unfortunate Chris Mammone nodded the ball into his own net.

Hastings continued to dominate the half without any clear cut chances, while any opportunities Battle created lacked the support needed to threaten the Rangers goal. Only one chance came their way when Ollie Jeffs headed wide from the middle of the goal. On thirty-nine minutes Hastings took the lead when they converted a penalty awarded after a spectacular fall past Simon by the Rangers striker.

That was it for incident before halftime and a change was made at the interval with Loksan coming on for Anthony. Josh dropped back into midfield to try and even up the numbers in the middle of the park.

The Baptists started the half with renewed energy and were unlucky not to score in a scramble on the edge of the box. As the ball pinged around it was impossible for any of Jake, Stuart of Jack to get a shot in. This good work was immediately undone as five minutes in the lead was stretched. A good run from deep left Simon with no chance as the striker applied a simple finish.

Iain then came on for Jack, before Simon did well with a couple of scrambles in his goalmouth when brave keeping was required. Bryan was unlucky when he carried the all out of defence well but just over-hit his through ball, before Seb hit a long-range free kick just wide of the upright.

With just over ten minutes left Stuart got cramp so Steve came on. Ollie hit the bar soon after with a snap shot following another excellent long throw from Chris, before Jake was cruelly denied a run on goal when he was wrongly adjudged offside from Steve’s through ball.

In injury time Hastings Rangers counter-attacked and a tidy finish low into the bottom corner from the edge of the area sealed the Baptist’s fate.