Arundel drop into bottom three

Mullets dropped back down to third-from-bottom after Shoreham recorded their second successive win on Tuesday with a 4-0 victory over fellow strugglers St Francis Rangers.

Arundel had suffered a 7-1 thumping at home to Three Bridges on Saturday in the Sussex RUR Cup and again collapsed after a first-half goal blitz saw Lancers lead 4-0 at the interval.

Mullets boss Brett Torode believes a lack of confidence is the reason behind his side’s struggles, and called their Boxing Day match with bottom-of-the-table Chichester a massive six-pointer.

He said: “It’s been a terrible week, we’re lacking in confidence and it was very disappointing, again.

“We don’t have a reserve side, have a lot of injuries, no strength in depth and no-one wants to come to us because of our situation.

“The second half was decent, we got a response, but the damage was done by then.

“I thought we’d turned a corner but we weren’t good enough again and Boxing Day is huge – a real six pointer.”

Lancers flew out of the traps and went close three times before they struck twice in a minute.

Charlie Walker dinked the ball over the defence and played in Darren Boswell, who finished neatly past James Fernandes on 20 minutes.

Then, with Arundel still re-organising, Jack Hayward won the ball in midfield and picked out Walker, who was played clean through and fired confidently into the corner.

It soon became 3-0 when Titus Paterson cut inside and his cross-come-shot was diverted in at the far post by the predatory Walker for Lancers’ third goal in four minutes.

Graham Martin forced Fernandes into a smart stop as the home side kept the pressure on, and their perfect first half continued through Scott Tipper’s unfortunate own goal, when he turned in a Boswell cross, with Paterson lurking.

Shell-shocked Mullets did at least put up more of a fight after the break, and pulled a goal back on the hour after a brief rally. Steve Gettings had a header saved, his rebound was blocked by Danny Gainsford, but the prolific Tipper followed up to knock home his 27th goal of the season.

The free-scoring frontman then saw a strike from long-range pushed behind by Lancing keeper Tony Di Bernardo, and Gary Norgate’s header was also tipped away by the stopper.

Lancing had the final say, though, when Boswell completed the rout from 30 yards on 76 minutes.

ARUNDEL: Fernandes; Peake, D.Walker, Hall, A.Biggs; Norgate, Grove, Keet, Hunter, Gettings; Tipper. Subs: Sutcliffe (Walker 19), Matthews, J.Biggs (A.Biggs, Hunter 78), L.Walker.