Cup Wins

After receiving a bye in the first round, the cup run began at the beginning of February with a second round tie at home to Mountfield. This game resulted in a 10-0 win and as the score suggests, there was only one team in the game, although Mountfield were not helped by being two players short at the start. Peter Mathews scored a hat-trick, Denis Swaine notched two goals, Denis Care and Bryan Butler both scored from the edge of the area with the other goals coming from Bernard Rankin, David Perkins and a John Dunk penalty.

The third round saw an away tie on 1st March against Bodiam, who were unbeaten at the time of the game and went on to win Division Three of the Hastings League, dropping only one point all season. Although the second team were perhaps a shade lucky to win the match and qualify for the semi-final, Denis Swaine was off the field for twenty minutes so the side earned their good fortune in surviving heavy Bodiam pressure. John Dunk and Michael Hills scored well taken goals to give the 2nd team a 2-0 half-time lead. Bodiam pulled a goal back and were frustrated by great goalkeeping by Kenny Morton and a hard tackling half-back line of Bryan Butler, Alf Holdstock and Denis Care. Michael Hills and Bernard Rankin worked very hard in attack.

The second half was a different story with the second team storming onto the attack and their persistent efforts were rewarded with two goals in as many minutes. Sensing victory, Icklesham continued to press and kept the Observer Athletic keeper very busy. Observer, however, were still playing good solid football and re-took the lead when seizing on a long clearance to fire the ball into the net. A less experienced team may have wilted, but urged on by centre-half Alf Holdstock, the second XI came back onto the attack but it was with less than three minutes to go that they drew level at 3-3. In extra time, both sides tired quickly and play was fairly even. The scorers for the Casuals were Brian Thomas, John Dunk and Michael Hills.

After the interval, Observer did most of the attacking but the goal they needed did not materialise with Alf Holdstock holding together a shaky defence from his centre-half position and Denis Care covering a lot of ground on the left. When Observer Athletic flagged in the last fifteen minutes, the seconds put the game beyond doubt with two more well-taken goals. Both John Dunk and Michael Hills netted three goals each but the outstanding forward was Bernard Rankin who put over many telling centres from outside left.