Little Common boss praises team ethic after successive wins

Little Common player-manager Russell Eldridge praised the football club's team ethic after a second successive four-goal victory.
Little Common player-manager Russell EldridgeLittle Common player-manager Russell Eldridge
Little Common player-manager Russell Eldridge

The Commoners followed up their 4-2 win at home to Hassocks a fortnight ago with a 4-1 victory away to Arundel in the Southern Combination League Premier Division last weekend.

Eldridge said: “To score eight goals in two games has been really good. We’ve found a way of playing now as such, everyone knows their roles and responsibilities, and everyone’s contributing to that. We’ve got a really good team ethic and I think that’s a massive thing for us at the moment.

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See also: * Ellis hat-trick fires Common to another four-goal win* Little Common boss: Win was a reward for our perseverance* 10-man Little Common triumph in eventful contest* Hot shot stays at Little Common amid interest from Bexhill United“I think it’s probably been coming for a little while because the performances have been good and we weren’t necessarily getting the results.

“The last two games we’ve managed to get ourselves in front and psychologically that’s a boost. We’ve also capitalised when we’ve had good moments of pressure and attacking opportunities, and those two things have been key.”

The victory over Arundel, in which Sam Ellis scored a hat-trick, lifted Common up three places to 15th in the table.

“It was nice to get another win and three points on the board,” continued Eldridge. “Most important was the fact that we were able to back up the win from the week before. Back-to-back wins makes a massive difference to the points total.

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“All our attacking players played well to be fair and Sam was able to bag three goals. Him, Wes (Tate) and Jamie (Crone) all caused problems, it just so happened on Saturday it was Sam’s day. He took his goals well, worked hard and it was thoroughly deserved.”

Common will be aiming to continue the momentum when they travel to seventh-placed Crawley Down Gatwick tomorrow (Saturday).

“I expect it to be not too dissimilar to the previous two games, maybe they might have a little bit more quality, but we’ll be looking to come back with a positive outcome,” said Eldridge. “If we can come away with something, it will be a really good run of games.”

Key defender Ryan Paul is unavailable, but Jordan Astell should be back, and Nick Richardson and Chris Cumming-Bart were hoping to return to training this week.

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Matt Cruttwell didn’t play against Arundel following the death of his father.

“All our thoughts are with Matt and Sam (his brother), because he’s played for us as well, at a difficult time for them,” added Eldridge.

Common are away to Horsham YMCA in the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday night.