Metro Reserves storm to win over Brighton in pre-season friendly

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Daniel Thurley, with shirt turned inside-out to avoid a colour clash, takes on a Metro opponent [PlessPix]

Metro Reserves beat Brighton Storm 5-2 in an entertaining pre-season friendly involving two lower-league sides at North Chigwell last Thursday evening.

The teams were wearing very similar strips and Brighton soon turned their shirts inside-out and played in what turned out to be white shirts.

Brighton stormed to a 6^th-minute lead when Daniel Thurley beat the Metro keeper with a delightful chip from range.

The lead lasted only 8 minutes and Brayden Blackaby, Metro’s left-winger in the number 7 shirt, equalised after some poor defending by the visitors left their goalkeeper out of position and the goal exposed.

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Brice Rowlandson clears his lines [PlessPix]

Two minutes later  -  in the 16^th minute  -  Blackaby repeated his party trick and netted into an empty goal to put Metro 2-1 ahead.

Jacob Clark scored Metro’s third in the 24^th minute and the home side led 3-1 at the break.

The Storm rallied in the opening stages of the second half and Ben Smith was unlucky not to score in the 58^th minute when he got onto the end of a left-wing cross only to head against the crossbar from close range, the ball rebounding into play.

Smith made amends on the hour when he scored from close range to make it 3-2.

Photo:  Metro's Terry Kent (left) is tackled by Brighton Storm's Zach Hurd [PlessPix]

That was as good as it got for Brighton Storm and Metro increased the tempo and scored twice before the end.

In the 64^th minute, Shane Kent scored a penalty awarded for handball to give Metro a 4-2 advantage.

In the 73^rd minute, they earned another penalty.  It was taken by their number 6 (no team lists), but Storm’s keeper, Nick Rolle, produced an excellent save.

With 6 minutes remaining, Metro’s Jay Shadbolt scored with a terrific shot from range to make the final score 5-2 in favour of the home team.

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Brice Rowlandson on the attack [PlessPix]

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Brice Rowlandson wins a header [PlessPix]

Photo:  Metro's Shane Kent (right) watches Brighton Storm's Daniel Thurley become airborne [PlessPix]

Photo:  Metro launch a counter-attack [PlessPix]

Photo:  Brighton scorer Ben Smith with his nose plugged.  A stray shoulder to the head have Smith a bleeding nose and a forced spell on the side-lines for about half an hour. [PlessPix]

Photo:  The colour clash is clearly evident in this photo [PlessPix]