The rain stayed away long enough for Heath’s Under 23s to win their way through to the quarter-final stage of the Southern Combination League U23 Cup with a narrow 2-3 away win at Alfold on Thursday evening.

Heath had a great start to the game taking the lead on 3 minutes when Adam Al Meskin received the ball some 30 yards from goal and played a pass over the Alfold defence to Harry Kent who stretched out his right leg to divert the ball past Alfold goalkeeper Carlos Fatehnia for his 8th goal of the season.

Things got even better for The Bears on 26 minutes when Luke Yorks’s corner from the left was headed home by Ethan Cummins at the far post giving his side a 2-0 advantage much against the run of play.

At the other end the Alfold side, kicking down the slope, were causing a lot of problems for the Heath defence with Dieron Munorrah the stand-out player, twisting and turning and running with pace at the Heath defence and it was no surprise when they pulled a goal back 6 minutes before the break when Adam Duneclift was harshly judged to have fouled Bailey Penalver, even harsher to have received a yellow card for the incident but no doubts about the finish with Penalver striking a right foot shot from 25 yards over the wall into the top left corner giving Heath goalkeeper Stan Williamson no chance of stopping.

Deep into time-added on the hosts were level and it was no surprise that Munorrah was involved in the move, attacking down the right flank the Alfold winger cut inside and fired in a left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area which was blocked by Williamson but the ball came out to Tommy Childs to score from close range to make it 2-2 at the break.

Some home truths must have been said during the half-time break as Heath, now kicking down the slope, played much better in the second period and took the lead with the old ‘route one’ football. Williamson receiving the ball deep in his own half. played a long ball forward which was headed on by Max Plinston some 20 yards from goal allowing Keanin Louw to run into the penalty area and fire a left foot shop past Fatehnia into the net.

Heath went on to have several chances to increase their lead, Harry Kent heading a corner over the crossbar from close range, Keanin Louw with a right foot shot from distance flying narrowly over the crossbar and the Alfold keeper coming off his line quickly to block Max Plinston’s point blank effort but it remained 2-3 at the final whistle.

In the quarter-finals Heath will play the winners of the Jarvis Brook U23 v Worthing United U23 fixture which is scheduled to take place on the 13th November.

Team: Williamson, York, Al Meskin, Pettipher, Duneclift, Cumming, Abrehert, Cooksley, Kent, Wraight, Louw. Subs: Sheriff, Plinston, Hayes, Aylett, Goncalves.