The home side, possibly still smarting from a 5-1 home defeat the previous week against Storrington came out of the blocks fast and looked to impose themselves on the game early on. Steyning we playing against the slope and were pretty much boxed in for the first 10-15 minutes as Midhursts direct approach caused them problems. They had 2 or 3 reasonable half chances during this period, included an effort that Parsons headed off the line and a free kick that deflected narrowly wide. Mike Abbott, returning to the front side in goal after a long absence, was also equal to the challenge early on with a couple of good saves.

Steyning however gradually started to get a foothold in the game and carved out a decent chance that Shug'aa headed straight at the home keeper. This was the first sign that Steynings swift passing style having an impact on the afternoon, and it was another of these neat moves that resulted in Town taking the lead on 18 minutes. After some neat interplay in the centre of the park the ball was worked across to Harris in the inside left channel. He cut inside on his right foot and played a sublime reverse pass that released Shug'aa. He had much to do as he accelerated towards the edge of the box, held off two defenders and cooly despatched a left foot finish in to the far corner. A lovely goal.

This was then followed by a good passage of play for the Barrowmen, as Midhurst had some of the wind taken out their sails. They started to needlessly give away stupid free kicks which allowed Steyning to apply constant pressure on the Midhurst final third, without cutting out many clear cut chances. At the other end Midhurst were having a little bit of success but a couple of half chances came and went without troubling Abbott. Full backs Mills and Webb were starting to get forward to join the attacks and this was starting to create overlaps.Dodd was also stating to look more comfortable and spraying the ball around with confidence after a quiet start. On 33 minutes it was another move started by Dodds, that released Mills down the right. Knowles created the overlap and it was his pin point cross that was fired home by the rampaging Gritt, whose determination got him to the ball ahead of three lunging defenders.

This pretty much the end of the football action in the first half, however tempers were starting to fray as a number of late tackles by the home side ended up with yellows bring shown, and Shug'aa in particular was not endearing himself to the home faithful who seemed to think he was going down rather too easily.

The second half ended up being more of the same, with the home sides constant infringements and moaning to the referee rather over -shadowing anything going on in a footballing sense. The Steyning back four, being well marshalled by Finch and Parsons were looking comfortable, and the Midhurst back four were looking equally untroubled at this stage.

However two sending offs for Midhurst midway through the half, as the result of more dangerous and late tackles, meant that the game was effectively over as a competition. In between this there was time for a 16 man dust up as Shug'aa and the Midhurst full back tangled on the floor and squared up to each other.

For the last 20 minutes Skipper, Partridge and Pickup all came on and Steyning used the time to spray the ball around and create overlaps. The cameo from Partridge was particularly impressive as he looked sharp and lively and was unlucky not to score on a number of occassions, but certainly should have buried a one on one after a low cross from Mills. Gritt twice, Partridge twice, and a number of others had the chance to give the score a more emphatic look however Midhurst dug in hard through to the whistle and the match ended at 2-0.

Overall it was a decent performance by Steyning who played some good football in patches and they will be pleased to get this trip out of the way and on the face of it it looks like other sides travelling to Midhurst will certainly drop points. Midhurst will rue that fact that ill discipline ultimately cost them the chance to take anything out of the game. The referee had an excellent game and got almost all of his decisions spot on.