Selsey welcomed Arundel at the High Street Ground on a sunny Sunday
morning for their opening league game as Jamie Simpson’s penalty and
Ayling’s late equaliser earned Selsey a point.

Despite a strong start from Selsey with early efforts from Tom Flaherty and
Ronnie Marwood, it was the visitors who took the lead with a free kick taken
by Harrison Bowley with a right footed long-range strike which rattled in off
the bar past, Ryan Matlock.

The Blues later equalised winning a penalty won from Ayling’s free kick which
fell to Peter Blanks who used his height to his advantage and flicked the ball
over with his head which found Flaherty who was taken down by Arundel
goalkeeper, Josh Bruford.

Simpson then scored from the spot remaining composed placing the ball in the
bottom left corner sending Bruford the other way.

Before the half time whistle, Matthias Budd went down with an injury after a
putting on a strong performance his injury unfortunately forced him off and
was replaced by Henry Waller.

In the second half, Selsey thought they had taken the lead when Simpson’s
corner fell back to him to put a ball back into the box which ended up lobbing
Bruford and finding the back of the net.

However, the linesman put his flag up and after deliberations between the
referee and linesman the goal was disallowed due to Nathan Mcilwain being in
an offside position and despite not touching the ball, obstructed play by being
in Bruford’s vision.

It got even worse for the Blues when their defence fell asleep and Tristan
Roderick took advantage of the situation as his first-time finish beat Matlock
giving the visitors the lead again.

In frustration, after an offside decision for the Selsey attack, Marwood whose
quick and skilful feet had proved beneficial to Selsey all game received a yellow
card for dissent earning himself a 10-minute sin bin, which made it even harder
for Selsey to stay in the game.

Arundel took advantage of a temporary 10 men Selsey when Roderick found
himself through on goal and passed it across Matlock to give Tyler Reid a
simple first-time finish into the goal, but the pass was flagged as offside.
Selsey continued to search for an equaliser as Ayling, Mcilwain, and Flaherty
linked up well as they had done all game, but Arundel remained strong at the
back and were able to intercept many through balls to Flaherty who had been
causing havoc for Arundel’s back line.

The Blues came close to equalising when Tobie Appleby’s wide shot effort hit
the bar, and Marcel Tourmentin’s rebounded first time strike heading towards
the goal hit Jacob Crulley’s head which forced him to go down and was subbed
off.

Selsey’s chances kept on coming with Ayling finding himself in the box with an
option to shoot, but his unselfish pass was intercepted, as well as Matlock’s
first-time clearance to the other end of the pitch troubled Bruford as Marwood
worked hard to beat him to it, but his shot failed to hit the target.

In the final minutes of the game, the goal Selsey had been tirelessly working
for came from a great passage of play from substitute Oscar Lee’s pass to
Mcilwain who put Ayling through on goal taking it past Bruford to give Selsey
the equaliser earning them a well-deserved point against a tough side.