Steyning Town strike back to land derby honours against Swans

Efforts from Dominic Taylor, Jake Cockerton and Alex Townley cancelled out Thomas Donnelly’s early opener, taking The Barrowmen to a 3-1 triumph.

Steyning suffered a home defeat at the hands of rivals Mile Oak on Saturday but head coach Gerry Murphy was delighted with the response from his team.

He said: “Going a goal down so early was disappointing but maybe that sprung us into action. Our response was great, getting two well-taken goals before half-time.

“We’ve tried to change the way we approach matches over the past few weeks, which is starting to reap the rewards through hard work, high-tempo and work rate.”

The derby clash was switched to The Shooting Field as heavy rain over Easter had put the fixture in doubt before both teams agreed to move the match to Town’s 3G surface.

Swans got off to a dream start and were ahead inside four minutes as Donnelly struck. Storrington’s lead lasted all of five minutes with Taylor’s thunderbolt into the top corner levelling things up.

Cockerton then completed Town’s turnaround nine minutes later, while Townley rounded off the win for Steyning on the hour.

The result leaves Swans fourth-from-bottom in the table with 24 points. That is four more than Billingshurst, who have four games in hand, six ahead of Oakwood and seven clear of basement boys Southwick, who have both played a game less.

Storrington are without a game at the weekend, but entertain Selsey in the league on Tuesday, while Steyning now travel to Langney Wanderers on Saturday.

Steyning Town: Rose; Clark, Cockerton, Haulkham, Spence, Fitzpatrick, Towse, Phillips, McGrath, Taylor, Townley. Subs: Pittock (Towse), Belton, Allison, Stevens.