Our third pre-season friendly saw The Bears travel the short distance to Isthmian League Central division side South Park played on one of the hottest Saturdays of the year, just as well both sides had plenty of players in their squads as they needed them for this match.

In a pretty evenly contested first half it was The Bears who took the lead 10 minutes before the break when Callum Dowdell picked up the ball on the halfway line and drove forward before playing the ball into the path of Emmanuel Abudiore as he arrived into the ‘D’ just outside the penalty area, the former Lancing player took a touch with the outside of his left boot and then rifled in a fierce left foot shot that flew into the roof of the net on the right-side of the goal to make it 0-1 at the break.

South Park were level within a minute of the restart when a ball was crossed from the right and floated over everybody before dropping in at the far post. The hosts then went on to have their best spell of the game but were unable to add to their score.

Wholesale changes were introduced to the Heath line-up to freshen things up, something the players coming off appreciated with a chance to get out the sun and rehydrate and the game again became more evening balanced.

With 15 minutes remaining Heath were awarded a free kick wide on the left, the ball was floated into the danger area, a Heath player rose high to head the ball down into the path of Luke Bejashvili who volleyed a right foot effort from 6 yards into the net.

Final score a 2-1 win for The Bears, the teams will meet again in a competitive match in eight weeks time when The Bears will again travel to South Park on the 6th September for an Isuzu FA Trophy 1st Round match.

Next up for The Bears is another road trip, this time we travel to another Isthmian League Central side, Ascot United on Saturday 19th July at 3.00pm.