Due to holiday, injury and sickness Heath Under 23 Manager Chris Ellis was forced to make five changes to his starting line-up for the trip to early division leaders Horsham YM with his side including five Broadbridge Heath Under 18 players.

The home side started better with their team marshalled by their experienced skipper playing at centre-half and barking orders to his younger compatriots, while The Bears were well below par, hardly able to string two passes together, misplaced passes and too often caught in possession so it was no real surprise when the hosts took the lead on 15 minutes, an underhit back-pass to Heath goalkeeper Stan Williamson allowed YM forward Owen Camp to charge down the keepers clearance, the ball rebounded kindly for the striker who went through to play it into an empty net.

YM had further chances to increase their lead, twice being denied by Williamson but it remained 1-0 at the break.

Not sure what was said at half-time but The Bears came out looking a different side in the second half, playing the ball around from front to back with some intricate passing through the midfield and they soon drew level on 52 minutes when Ethan Cumming won the ball at the heart of the defence, six passes later it came to Nat Guest just outside the ‘D’ who struck a superb right foot shot that curled around the prostrate YM keeper into the top right corner of the net.

Both sides had chances to extend their lead, a YM player fired a fierce right foot shot from distance that cannoned off the top of the crossbar and at the other end Charlie Cranfield’s right foot shot was well saved by the YM keeper.

The winning goal came on 83 minutes when Scott Buchanan played a deep cross from the left towards the far post to Leo Anderson who rose above everyone to power a headed goal past the YM keeper, Leo of course would normally be the person between the sticks keeping out the shots but he has played as striker before for Ellis in his youth days and just showed that he also has quite a presence as an outfield player.

In the closing stages YM had a great chance to level the game when a player broke through the Heath defence but he blasted his shot high and wide of target and it remained 2-1 to The Bears at the end.

Team: Williamson, Cranfield, Wraight, Duneclift, Cooksley, Cumming, Peck, Pickering, Abrehert, Buchanan, Guest. Subs: Goncalves, Wraight, Anderson, Louw, Aylett.