The away trip to Guernsey had been eagerly anticipated by the Bexhill Utd fans since the fixtures for the current season were first announced.

It would be the first ‘overseas’ fixture for the club in it’s long history and 50 Pirates had grabbed the opportunity to be part of the experience and made their way across the Channel by boat and plane to be in St Peter’s Port in time for kick off.

The players and management team flew in and out on the day and it meant an early start at Gatwick for the hop across the water in the turbo prop plane.

It made a big change from the usual car-pooling across Sussex and if you had told someone a few years back you’d be flying to a County League fixture they’d had thought you were losing your marbles.

The sun shone on Saturday afternoon on the immaculate facilities at Guernsey’s Victoria Park Stadium, a club with ambition and the set up to progress up the pyramid, a ground that wouldn’t look out of place in the National League let alone Step 5.

Regardless, their warmth of welcome to the visitors from East Sussex was kind and generous so it was just down to Bexhill to deliver on the pitch.

Guernsey are in a rich vein of form, particularly at their home fortress and although they may have left it too late to challenge Haywards Heath and Steyning Town for the title they are firmly in the mix for the play-off’s.

They had comprehensively turned over the Pirates earlier in the season, once in an FA Vase match at Hastings Utd’s Pilot Field and a few weeks back in the league at the Polegrove.

Pirates boss Jay Skinner-Swain was well aware of the physical threat posed by the hosts and picked a side to try and counter that with Dan Rogers returning at the back along with Dale Penn.

Bexhill’s first challenge was to try and prevent an early goal, the hosts with a track record of blitzing side early one and leaving them shell-shocked and with a mountain to climb.

As expected they did start like a train and the early goal arrived on just four minutes. The dangerous Fazakerly found Loaring whose shot was well saved by Finn Holter, but the same player collected the rebound to cross for Murray to head home.

The Pirates picked themselves up and went in search of an equaliser but found themselves two behind on 12 minutes. A ball into the near post wasn’t dealt with and Fazakerly got in first to steer the ball home from a tight angle.

Bexhill have recovered from fast starts before but they faced the stiffest of tests against a rampant Green Lions and dug deep. They began to make inroads knowing that they would have to hit their hosts with pace and on the deck rather than long balls into a well drilled defensive unit.

On 25 minutes they had one back as Jack Shonk drove towards the box and picked out the arriving Will Saunders at the back post who halved the deficit.

With Bexhill in the ascendancy the dynamics of the game had been turned on it’s head. Shonk came within a whisker of levelling things up just after the half hour but on the stroke of half time he did just that.

Spotting the keeper off his line, not the first time this season he unleashed a 40 yard lob from the left hand side over his head and into the net sparking some wild scenes from the travelling Pirates.

The home side though took the lead again five minutes into the second half, Fazakerly won a header in the box and nodded it down for Le Lacheur to slot home, a blow for Bexhill but not out of the game.

Saunders thought he equalised for the visitors just after the hour, but an extraordinary save from Addison saw the ball the wrong side of the post.

The hosts were down to ten men with 12 minutes to play when Merris received his second yellow of the game, from the resulting free kick Shonk’s effort pushed round the post by Addison.

Bexhill had the home side pinned back for the final minutes of the match but just couldn’t find a way through for a point their performance and fighting spirit so richly deserved.

A battling display that gave Guernsey the fright of their lives, the Pirates had came and seen but not conquered but an awayday for the club that will live long in the memory.

Courtesy of Geoff Morris.