Broadbridge Heath share spoils with Burgess Hill … Roffey chop down Forest … Horsham Women win derby

Broadbridge Heath 0 AFC Burgess Hill Town 0

Isthmian south east

The second meeting in five days between the two clubs came with the Hillians having won the previous encounter in the Sussex Transport Senior Cup 5-4 on penalties after the two sides were level at 2-2 after 90 minutes.

For this game Heath manager Chris Simmons made five changes to the starting line-up with Alfie Hadfield replacing goalkeeper Liam Matthews, who has a hip injury. Jack Frankland missed the game through injury having damaged knee ligaments in the same game, while Adrian Todd and Louis Evans both returned after missing the midweek fixture and new signing Ben Aubrey made his club debut for the Bears.

Aubrey was in action straight away when within minutes of the start – his goal-bound header from a Jamie Chesworth’s left wing cross was deflected wide and out for a corner. At the other end a left foot shot from Hillians striker Dan Perry was gathered comfortably by Hadfield.

The Heath keeper, making his first appearance since breaking his elbow at Eastbourne United almost 12 months earlier, was in action again on 11 minutes when Mo Jammeh’s right wing cross to the far post was met by the head of Rob O’Toole. Hadfield stuck out his left hand to save the goal attempt and then pounced on the loose ball.

A Hillians attack down the left flank on 27th minute ended with the ball played into O’Toole some eight yards from goal and the striker went tumbling to the ground under a challenge from the Heath skipper Ryan Brackpool but the referee was ideally placed to wave away the penalty claims.

Then, nine minutes later it was the home supporters calling for a penalty when Aubrey went crashing to the ground under a challenge by Nic D’Arienzo but once again the official in black remained unmoved. Hadfield was forced to make two further saves before the break, saving well from Jack Taylor and in injury time a routine save from Finn Daniels-Yeomans.

The flow of the game in the second half continued from end to end with Hadfield called into action again; saving another goal attempt this one from Jammeh early into the restart.

It wasn’t all one way though and the save of the match, or even save of the season, was made by the Hillians goalkeeper Luke Glover on 59 minutes – a Louis Evans corner from the left was half-cleared by the fist of Glover on the goal-line under pressure, Todd reacted quickest to hammer a right foot shot through a crowd of players that the Hillians keeper, reacting quicker than a striking rattlesnake, diverted the ball away from the goal and out for a corner.

With 70 minutes gone and Heath in the ascendency, Louis Evans won the ball in midfield and picked out Aubrey wide on the left, the striker cut inside and struck a left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area that dipped narrowly over the crossbar.

In the final 10 minutes of the match Glover again showed his class with another brilliant one handed point blank save to deny Ashley Mutongerwa who hammered a right foot rocket of a shot from 12 yards that the Burgess Hill keeper pushed up onto the crossbar and out to safety.

Heath boss Simmons said afterwards: “Another really even match between the two sides and either team could have won it if either keeper wasn’t on top form. It wasn’t the greatest game of football and probably a draw was the fair result.”

Horsham YMCA 0 Eastbourne Town 0

SCFL premier

by Martin Read

Don’t be deceived by the scoreline – this was an entertaining game, with Horsham YMCA again confirming that they are perfectly capable of holding off upper table sides, just as they did against Steyning in their previous outing.

YM were twice denied by the woodwork, and on another day might have snatched all three points at the death.

Delighted Manager Dean Carden told the County Times: “Senior players dropped out late because of sickness, but their replacements did us proud. That was a really solid performance, building on recent good displays and we need to keep that going now!”

From an early corner, YM rattled both the crossbar and visiting Eastbourne Town, six places higher in the league. Jack Murphy, Kai Crowhurst and James Hull all responded with shots, but without unduly troubling Aaron Jeal in the YM goal. After corners at either end, YM got the ball in the net only to be deprived by an infringement, and, just before half time, a YM piledriver narrowly evaded the top right corner of the goal.

Resuming, YM survived an early scare when Jeal had to be at full stretch to keep out an errant back pass. YM then blazed over before, somehow, Eastbourne missed an open goal, and were then far too aerial.

YM, though, were playing compact football and defending valiantly. Eastbourne hooked over ahead of a YM attacking spell earning two corners, during which sub Zac Massey shot wide.

Both teams pressed hard to for a winning goal in the closing minutes, and, in an impressive much-improved performance, YM might have succeeded when Hayden Neathey unleashed a long range rocket - the last kick of the game – but it crashed onto the crossbar, thwarting YM by the tightest of margins.

Roffey 3 Forest Row 1

SCFL Division 1

by Sam Chapman

Roffey overcame a stubborn and resilient Forest Row team to register their 11th win in 14 league games to return to the top of the table.

Jack Munday is having to select his teams with several games in mind as he uses his big squad to maintain Roffey’s challenge on five fronts, with a semi final, two quarter finals, the push for promotion and a history-making run in the FA Vase all on the radar.

He rotated his squad again and this may have led to a lacklustre opening to the game with the visitors having a lot of possession in and around the home penalty area without really extending Blake Williams in the Boars goal. Roffey did threaten with isolated attacks rather than sustained pressure but could still have gone ahead with several shots going over the bar or being saved by the visiting keeper.

The home side gradually began to gain more control of possession and this evenyually resulted in the opening goal. Wanstall drove in a shot which Louie Erotokritos could not hold the ball ran loose and Ricardo Fernandes following up got the ball at the same time as the keeper and the ball squeezed out between them and hit the post. The Boars skipper reacted first and showed improvisation to Rabona the rebound just inside the post.