Prime travelled to the newly re-formed East Peckham for their first league away game of the season. Despite having nearly 20 players signed on manager Sykes was still asking former boss Goldsmith to pull in favours to put the squad up to 13, by bringing along his brother-in-law Leigh Chatfield.

Sykes realised it is now vitally important to get some spare kits from those ‘fringe’ players who are unable to play on a weekly basis to avoid another week of scraping around for kit.

The weather was once again terrible with torrential downpours overnight and long showers before the game Prime went out on the damp but firm pitch poorly prepared as Sykes was forced to delay naming his side whilst waiting for captain Abu to arrive 2 minutes before kick-off. Sykes hadn’t even had the opportunity to kick a ball before the game started.

Prime kicked off on the wide expansive pitch and were given a rude awakening when East Peckham pushed forward and stretched the defence. It took The Numbers 5 minutes to settle into another of the new manager’s formations, 4-1-4-1 this week.

The lone striker of Ferguson was chasing down the centre backs of East Peckham who were allowed plenty of time on the ball due to the size of the pitch. It was the hassling of Ferguson that allowed the first real chance of the game which fell to Sykes when Peckham’s goalkeeper passed the ball straight to him and with the keeper stranded Sykes’ shot/come cross tamely went out for a throw in with the goal begging from 35 yards.

On the right hand side Buckland and Henshall were linking up well and despite a customary foul throw from the evergreen Buckland the chances were being created from that side.

On his return Westcott battled hard in the midfield alongside Taylor and Abu and had plenty of time on the ball unfortunately the free-flowing passing football that seemed to be possible was not happening for Prime and the 1st half ended being a scrappy affair with Goldsmith and Cary marshalling the backline and giving East Peckham nothing in attack.

The half time whistle blew and Prime were boosted by a solid performance and there was plenty of positive chat amongst the squad.

The second half played out similar to the first. Prime were disjointed in possession and not able to keep the ball, and East Peckham happy to play the ball along the back four and try to release their right back.

Goldsmith marshalled the back four with authority and blocked everything that came through the middle with the Prime wingers largely playing a spectator role, Sykes through lack of effort and Henshall due to lack of time on the ball.

Sykes made a change and replaced the hard working Ferguson for Siekanka who is in a rich vein of form since signing during the summer, and once again his presence paid off for the away side when neat work between Henshall and Westcott left Sykes running onto the ball which was flicked into the substitute’s path and he calmly placed the ball beyond the keeper and gave The Numbers a deserved lead.

With 10 minutes remaining Sykes replaced himself with Chatfield who came on to sure up the left hand side and give Barnham protection.

East Peckham pushed for an equaliser and it looked like Prime were going to be taking away all 3 points when keeper Overy made a string of fine saves – including taking one to the face as he kept Prime in the driving seat.

Unfortunately for Prime they were unaware of the additional 5 minutes of extra time conjured up by the referee who then ignored the lines signalling 3 players offside to allow East Peckham 3 more opportunities to score and despite the goal scorer being offside in the build-up and controlling the ball with his arm, the man in black decided to allow the goal to stand and despite protests from the disgruntled and hard done by Prime players, the goal stood and Prime were left feeling robbed and hard done by leaving East Peckham with just a point.

Overall Prime will and should be happy having taken 7 points from 4 games in a tough division. The next fortnight for Prime is a tough one facing Pembury Reserves and then Tonbridge Athletic.