Rocks Review: Leatherhead 2 Rocks 0

A goal either side of half-time ended their hopes of victory over a team who beat them to promotion via the play-offs last season - but only after a bright first-half performance from Darin Killpartrick and Jamie Howell’s team.

It was the same score on the same ground that knocked them out of the 2009-10 competition - although then, it was the Rocks who were in the premier division and the Tanners in division one south.

There was little hint of a Rocks fightback after they’d gone 2-0 down and the loss leaves them with only their Ryman one south promotion bid and the Sussex Senior Cup to focus on - whiuch may be no bad thing given the size of their squad.

It was a reasonably-strong line-up put out by the Rocks but Jason Prior was away on work commitments and James Crane and Tim Bond were only on the bench.

The Rocks started brightly with some crisp passing and Kane Wills went close with a 30-yard effort that keeper Audie Matheson-Light fumbled.

The home keeper gave the 40 or so Rocks fans at the game some of their highlights of the night, with the supporters often shouting for a goal kick against their team so they could see if the stopper could keep his kick in play.

Jack McLeod whizzed a shot just over the bar while at the other end Steve Harper struck a post with a 20-yard free-kick that then bounced into the keeper’s arms.

A Terry Dodd header also struck the woodwork as the Rocks enjoyed the best of the first half but a minute beofre the break the momentum changed when a slip by Callum Sheriff let McLeod in for a run on goal and a shot which beat Craig Stoner a minute before the break.

Early in the second half Elliott Thompson ran at a retreating defence and fired in the second.

The Rocks showed only glimpses of what they could do after that athough both Tyler Hope and Connor Cody fared well after coming off the bench.

Cody hit a speculative shot from 20 yards that Matheson-Light saved before Kevin Perry and Liam Pestle both went close to adding a third for the home side.

ROCKS: Stoner, Marzetti (Cody), Sheriff, Blatchford (Hope), Axten, Breach, Beck, Wills, Harper, Dodd, Johnson. Subs not used: Crane, Bond, Boyle.

The Rocks return to league action on Saturday when Eastbourne Town visit Nyewood Lane.

SIMON COOK & STEVE BONE