Lingfield 4-2 Broadbridge Heath

This was a game Heath's ad-interim manager Chris Simmons could really have done without with at least six of his senior players unavailable through injury, holiday, work and suspensions and when the hosts said their pitch was unplayable it looked like his wishes had come true. Unfortunately though Lingfield, who already have a long backlog of fixtures, were desperate to get the game played so they hired The Camping World Community Stadium, home of Horsham Football Club and it was game on.

The first chance of the match came Heath's way when Jake Hull got a toe to a back-pass which evaded the Lingers keeper sprinting off his line but went narrowly wide of his right hand post. The home side (?) took the lead in the 9th minute when former Heath forward Richard Wetton powered in a header from close range and midway through the half the striker made it 2-0 capitalizing on a mistake by the Heath defence and a minute later another mistake allowed Kerran Boyland in to score and it was 3-0 at the break. A difficult half for Heath with the Lingfield keeper much the busier of the two keepers and making two classy saves to deny the Bears, while a mixture of clinical finishing and poor defending at the other end made the difference.

Heath rallied in the second period and the young guns, eight of whom play for the Under 23s, started to string some good moves together but against the run of play Connor Wilford made the game safe with a fourth for Lingfield. Heath still pushed forward and pulled a goal back on 70 minutes when Jake Hull was brought down in the penalty area and he picked himself up to convert from the spot. Five minutes later Hull pounced again to make it 4-2 and still the Bears pushed forward, another superb save by the Lingfield keeper denied Heath a third which would have setup an interesting final few minutes but it wasn’t to be.

Heath: Chester, Flack, Robinson, Balfour, Miller (Fawcett), Watts (Blake 62), Law, Wanstall, Taylor (Jobbins 45), Hull, Goddard.