One of the season's best for Loxwood as boss Beard salutes improvement

DM16136572a.jpg Football: Loxwood v Arundel. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-160822-093311008

In a first half that finished 1-1, Max Bickell opened the scoring for the Magpies before they were pegged back, but a rampant Loxwood took apart the visitors with three second-half goals from the returning Ollie Gill, Byron Napper, and Charlie Pitcher.

Beard was delighted with his side’s performance and also saluted their progression over the course of the season.

He said: “It was probably one of our best performances this season. We just stuck at everything we did, everything we talked about from the week before. We’ve been playing really well in patches of games so it was nice to see it over the full 90 minutes.”

After last weekend’s performance against Lancing saw the Magpies go a goal up early before collapsing, there was a chance that history may be repeating itself as Wick scored quickly through Dan Simmonds after Loxwood opened the scoring.

However Beard believes that his side grew in confidence as the game went on, not looking like they would make the same mistakes again.

He continued: “Last week we started well and then let it slip. It looked like it could happen again but it didn’t and we kept on doing what we were doing.

“Even though they equalised I still felt that we had control of the game and played some great stuff. We’ve improved massively over the last six weeks in terms of results. I think the Lancing result was a bit of a blip.

“Saturday gives us confidence for Horsham YMCA this weekend, as our one-touch passing was just unbelievable to watch.”

Up next for Loxwood is an away trip to local rivals Horsham YMCA, who have had a two-week break since their last fixture when they lost 3-1 to Pagham.

Beard added: “They’re always a good team. Their manager will have them up for it as well.

“A lot of our players know their players so it’ll be good. I don’t know much about them so for me it’s just another game. We’re going to set out as normal and go for the win.

“It’s on a nice pitch as well which will suite us in the way we play. We’ve got a few suspensions this week but the boys who step in will have to do their jobs.”

Loxwood: Carruthers, Williams, French (Jacques 63), Scally, Bachelor, Colbran, Gill, Napper, Swaine, Bickell (Pitcher 73), Daniel (Davies 78).