Peacehaven & Telscombe 3-2 Broadbridge Heath

Heath travelled to Peacehaven & Telscombe FC hoping to pick up points to close the gap on the top teams, four of whom were playing each other but things don’t always go to plan as the home side obviously did not read the script.

Peacehaven started very well, playing down the slope with a gale-force wind behind them and their first attempt at goal came from Joshua Marshall on 3 minutes when the striker hit a right foot shot just wide of Michael Chester’s right hand post, at the other end Jake Holmes setup Ollie Moore who drilled a shot from the edge of the box just wide of the Peacehaven goal. The pressure from the home-side was relentless and Chester was forced to make the first of several saves, pushing a shot from distance over the bar and from the corner Curtis Ford hit the woodwork but the ball fell kindly to Acer Wake who netted from the rebound.

Minutes later the home-side doubled their lead when Chester got a hand to a dangerous right wing cross and the ball fell to Marshall who rifled it back into the goal. The home side went on to dominate the first half, with Marshall and Connor Wilkins testing Chester with powerful long range shots that with the wind in their favour flew like exocet missiles homing in on their target but somehow they failed to add to their tally until 2 minutes before the break when Ellis Cowd got behind the Heath defence and played a cross to the far post which came out to Marshall to score his second of the match.

Painter who’d made five changes to the team that started the game at Loxwood 4-days earlier, brought on Piers McDermott and Tiago Andrade at the break and gradually Heath started to threaten, Jamie Robinson rifled in a shot from 35 yards that crashed against the crossbar but the home-side still threatened on the break and Chester was forced to make another point blank save to deny the hosts a 4th. Heath finally pulled a goal back in the 67th minute when a corner came out to Jamal Sultan who played it straight back into the penalty area where Stuart Chester bundled it into the net. With 15 minutes remaining it was 3-2 when Sultan drilled in a right foot shot from 18 yards and suddenly the home-side were getting a bit nervy, Ollie Moore had a shot from 30 yards that went inches wide of the post but the Peacehaven defence held out and on the balance of play thoroughly deserved their victory.

Team: M.Chester, Swaine, Robinson, S.Chester, Howard, Weller (McDermott 46), Wright (Sultan 65), Findlay, Moore, Holmes, Martin (Andrade 45).