Our first competitive match of the season saw us travel down to Culver Road, Lancing for a match against National League side Worthing in the Sussex Community Shield.

Heath made a great start to the match and took the lead after just 6 minutes play when Faris Khallouqui robbed the ball off a defender and ran through to drill a low right foot shot from the edge of the box into the bottom left corner of the net.

Things got even better for the Bears when on 18 minutes Jack Frankland intercepted a pass near the halfway line and sprinted away down the right flank, into the penalty area before squaring across the face of goal to set up Ashley Mutongerwa for a tap in.

The Rebels pulled a goal back 39 minutes before the break when Frankland was judged to have committed a foul in the box and Suk-jae Lee dispatched the spot kick wide Roshan Greensall to reduce the deficit.

The half finished in a flurry of chances for the Bears who regained the 2 goal advantage just before the break when Sam Lemon’s diagonal run from right to left ended with him playing a through ball to Bradley Campbell who ran towards goal before hitting a right foot shot from 20 yards that deflected off the keeper into the net.

Worthing made a couple of changes to their line up for the start of the second half and whatever was said to the players in the dressing room at half-time certainly had an impact on the Rebels as they started the half much stronger and they pulled a goal back on 63 minutes from yet another penalty kick and once again Frankland was involved, this time accidently clipping the heels of Kyle O’Brien and Juan Luque stepped up to score wide to the right of Greensall.

Heath were struggling to get their game together following wave after wave of Worthing attacks and were grateful to Greenshall for making two outstanding saves and a last ditch block by skipper Ryan Brackpool but just as it looked like the Bears could hold out for victory a wonder goal in the 88th minute from Finlay Chadwick, who spotted Greenshall off his line and struck a right foot shot from 60 yards high over the keeper into the empty net, a great bit of ingenuity from a quality player.

So at 3-3 the game went straight into a penalty shoot-out which the Rebels won by 5-4 to end Heath’s hopes of an early season trophy.

Next up for the Bears is an EMIRATES FA Cup match when Sheerwater visit the BodyMould Stadium on Saturday 5th August, Kick Off 5.00

Team: Greenshall, Frankland, Chesworth (Young 60), Penfold, Scally, Brackpool, Parmiter (Weller 60), Khallouqui (Quiasacca 65), Mutongerwa (Webster 85), Lemon, Campbell (Doughty 75).