Broadbridge Heath 3-0 Wick

Broadbridge Heath eased through to the last 16 of the Peter Bentley Cup with a comfortable 3-0 home victory over fellow Premier division side Wick on Saturday.

With such a hectic schedule of games Heath Manager Steve Painter chose to rest a few players for the match which meant first starts of the season for Jamie Craven, Liam Hunter and Jamie Liddell with the latter grasping the opportunity to impress by putting the visiting defence under constant pressure running at them with the ball with skill and pace and it was no surprise that it was Liddell who opened the scoring when he got on the end of a Jamie Robinson through ball on 16 minutes, took it around the fullback and drilled it into the top left corner from 25 yards.

Heath doubled their score 3 minutes later when a defender needlessly handled the ball in the penalty area and Tim Martin stepped up to score from the spot kick. At this stage Heath were well on top and Andrade had a great chance to make it three when he was put through on goal by Piers McDermott but the Heath striker shot narrowly wide of the left post with the keeper well beaten.

The visitors were finding chances few and far between but should have pulled a goal back 10 minutes before the break when Andrew Weir blasted high over the bar from close range but the game changed minutes before the break when Wick’s Charlie Williamson was shown a second yellow card followed immediately by a red after an altercation with Liddell.

It didn’t take too long for Heath to increase their score in the second period when straight from the kick off the ball came out to Robinson advancing down the left flank, he played a ball over the Wick defence into the path of Andrade who hit it first time over the advancing keeper into the empty net.

That goal just about killed off the game as a competition; Heath with the extra player controlled a lot of the game and had most of the possession but the visitors did create some good chances on the counter-attack and twice forced debutant keeper Jamie Craven into making finger-tip saves with shots from distance but in the end a pretty comfortable win for the Bears who will now play AFC Uckfield in Round 3 after their 2-1 win at Hassocks.

Team: Craven, Holvey, Robinson (Bevan 55), Chester, Howard, McDermott, Hunter, Findlay, Martin (Weller 26), Liddell (Godfrey 60), Andrade.