Ahead of the end of the cricket season, when Bexhill can at last get back to playing their home games at the famous Polegrove Stadium, the Pirates found themselves back on the road again.
This time it was a Saturday trip towards the Surrey border and a league fixture against Roffey.
Despite the heavy overnight rain, and a pre-kick-off deluge, the lovely Theatre of Trees ground looked in great shape and, as the teams came out on the pitch, so did the sunshine.
It was Bexhill who got off to a storming start and Charlie Curran had a great chance to open the scoring in the first minute when the ball broke for him in the Boars’ box but that opportunity went begging.
However, on 17 minutes, the Pirates took the lead through an own goal from a corner.
Bexhill kept up their fierce opening pace and on 25 minutes it was another set-piece, a Ryan Moir corner, that saw Jack Shonk react quickest and poke the ball home. Although the Pirates were good value for their lead the game was turned upside down in a crazy eight-minute period.
Roffey exploited some space down the Bexhill left to pull a goal back on 34 minutes and pretty much repeated the exact same move a couple of minutes later to level it up at 2-2.
As half-time approached, the hosts weren’t done yet and on 42 minutes, following a great save from Stef Akras in the Pirates goal, Lui Edwards got a second chance and made no mistake to make it 3-2.
It had been an extraordinary see-saw of a half of football but, having spun the momentum around, it was Roffey who came out firing on all cylinders for the second period.
On 61 minutes, what looked like a nailed on fourth was only prevented by an extraordinary clearance on the line. Akras made a brilliant one-on-one save to keep Bexhill in the game but on 70 minutes it was done and dusted when a deflected shot from Jordan Mase slid into the net to make it 4-2.
Bexhill tried to freshen things up by throwing on their subs but it was all to no avail and their unbeaten start to the league season came to a disappointing end against a Roffey side who, in the end, were worthy winners.
