Sussex Athletic 2–1 Acton United: professional enough

Match report

Sussex Athletic beat Acton United 2-1 at home on Monday 31 August, and for the first hour it looked like a training exercise with better lighting. The 7th-minute opener set the tone: Elmar Grünewald slipped a pass through a sleepy Acton defence for Silas Eastleigh, who finished with the calm of a man who knows the season is basically over for both these sides. Sussex have been drawing more than they would like of late, so an early goal was presumably greeted with mild surprise.

The second arrived on 35 minutes. Tarquin Brackenbury's assist found Grünewald, and the German swiped it home with a certain impatience, as if the first goal had been sufficient but he was damned if he was going to trust it. That made it 2-0 at the break, and Acton trudged off wearing the expression of a team that had seen this film before and also disputed the run time. They came into this as the league's designated serial drawers, though for a side bottom of the table you have to suppose a 1-1 every week still feels like a roof over the head.

The comeback attempt took until the 69th minute, which felt like Acton deciding at half-time that a nap was the priority and the football could wait. Reuben Yates-Salt turned in his goal to make it 2-1. Suddenly the evening had a nervous edge it had not earned. Sussex held on, their point total climbing to a respectable-looking 50 that the table will almost certainly describe as mid-table until the end of time. The earlier fixture between these two finished 3-1, so at least the pattern held in spirit: one team scores, the other chases, and the scoreboard refuses to be a laugh-a-minute.

Both sides reconvene tomorrow, the price of daily football. Acton, still six points from safety and apparently allergic to wins, will have to decide whether the 69-minute curtain call becomes a full performance. Sussex, meanwhile, have shown they can take a lead; the next trick is keeping the whole thing from becoming a drama. Bear with me.