From a Sussex perspective...as reported by one of their local papers on line...

This is taken from the website "This Is Sussex", filed from the Crawley News & we hope will besomething for you all to read, while our regular Hamlet Pitchero scribe has yet to file his report...

LIGHTS GO OUT ON BRIDGE
IT WAS a hard week for Three Bridges but manager Paul Faili was pleased with the improved attitude his players showed in their floodlight affected defeat to Dulwich Hamlet.

After a "shocking" first half, Bridges were knocked out of the Ryman League Cup on Tuesday night following a 6-4 defeat, but manager Faili believes his side were much improved against Hamlet.

"We were shocking in the first half on Tuesday night and went in 4-0 down at the break," he said. "We've spoken about attitude and quality and I think that is what we demonstrated against Dulwich Hamlet.

"A lot of managers would probably blame Saturday's defeat on the floodlight failure in the second half, but the truth is Dulwich Hamlet just came out better than we did after the lights were back on.

"We should have finished them off before then, we had two or three chances and missed an absolute sitter, but they are the best side we have played so far.

"This is why we wanted to play in the Ryman League – to play sides like Dulwich Hamlet and Tooting & Mitcham."

Despite Dulwich being the better side for large periods of the first half, and the home-side owing a lot to keeper Alan Mansfield, it was Bridges who took the lead.

Lee Carney, back on the pitch for the first time in nine months, clipped the ball into the box, and Hamlet failed to clear, leaving Bridges' top-scorer Marcus Elliott with the opportunity to drill home.

Bridges were still in front when their floodlights took a turn for the worse on 62 minutes, leaving Jubilee Field in darkness for quarter of an hour.

After the delay, Elliott, Tom Bold and Scott Faber all had chances to extend the lead but couldn't find the back of the net.

On 73 minutes, the Londoners took advantage of Bridges' poor finishing when Daniel Carr capitalised on disarray in the defence to equalise.

And with just three minutes left to play, Carr struck again when he beat the Bridges offside trap to slot past Mansfield. There was still time for Faber to see a solid effort blocked, before a Faber corner was back headed by Charlie Cooke onto the bar.