Broadbridge Heath Under 23s left it very late to earn a point in the SCFL U23 North Division against their Crawley opponents Oakwood U23s on Thursday night, scoring the equaliser in the 5th minute of time added on.

Having already beaten the Bears on the opening game of the season Broadbridge Heath were hoping to even the score with victory at the Air Engineering Stadium but the visitor’s had other ideas and started the game on the ascendency, taking the lead on 8 minutes when a misplaced pass out of defence was intercepted by Oakwood’s Scott Budgen wide on the left who played it inside to Alsane Dia to advance towards goal before dispatching a low right foot shot from 16 yards into the bottom left corner to give his side an early lead.

Heath responded well with Ollie Rawlins receiving the ball on the edge of the penalty area turning his marker and firing a fierce left foot shot straight into the arms of Oakwood’s goalkeeper Brodie Ryrie Smith making his debut for the Oaks.

On 13 minutes Oakwood striker Tom Buckle linked up well with Budgen who was denied by Heath goalkeeper Stan Williamson sprinting off his line to block the shot.

Broadbridge Heath drew level on 33 minutes when Adam Al Meskin played a deep cross from the left which was picked up by Jamie Collyer wide on the right of the penalty area and the former Horsham Youth player played it inside to his skipper Harry Kent who took a touch before smashing the ball into the roof of the net for his third of the season.

Heath’s celebrations were short-lived though as within minutes the visitor’s had regained the lead when a long ball forward from defence was received by Buckle with his back to goal who laid it off to Budgen to play a pass straight down the middle of the park allowing Harrison Stewart to run through and with Williamson coming off his line the Oakwood player chipped the ball over the keeper to give his side a deserved 2-1 lead at the break.

The visitor’s started the second half well without troubling the Heath goal, the closest they came was a free kick from Budgen some 30 yards from goal which saw the ball go high over the crossbar and it was last seen heading along the A264 towards Slinfold.

From then on the match almost became a training session of attack versus defence with the Bears the dominant attacking force while the Oaks put on a brave defensive display thwarting all of Heath’s efforts to find an equaliser and on the odd occasion the defence were beaten Ryrie Smith was on hand to save the day for Oakwood making a string of saves, most noticeably one from Adam Al Meskin who hammered a shot from distance that Ryrie Smith saved at full stretch to push the ball wide of the post.

Deep into time added-on Heath won a corner on the right which was played long towards the far post to Al Meskin who headed the ball down and into the bottom left corner to help earn his team a point much to the pleasure of the majority of watching supporters.

Team: Williamson, Duneclift, Al Meskin, Wraight, Devlin, Cooksley, York, Marino, Rawlins, Kent, Collyer. Subs: Frazer, Barton, Carron, Plinston, Hayes.