Hythe Town 2-1 Broadbridge Heath

The Clubs furthest trip so far this season saw the Bears travel to “The Garden of England” for a match against Hythe Town but it certainly wasn’t a day for gardening with freezing temperatures below minus, a sprinkling of snow on the ground and thickening fog reducing visibility, OK for Polar Bears but not for the Broadbridge Heath Bears and their supporters.

The first half of the match lacked any real quality with both teams struggling to come to terms with the conditions and the heavy and uneven pitch preventing any free-flowing moves. The home-side probably edged the first half on chances with Heath keeper Alfie Hadfield the busier of the two keepers but Heath did have the ball in the back of the net once when Sam Lemon broke through the Town defence and drilled a low right foot shot into the bottom corner of the net, only for the Referee’s Assistant to rule it out for offside and it remained 0-0 at the break.

That scoreline changed within a minute of the restart and with most supporters still in the warmth of the clubhouse, a long throw-in was launched deep into the Heath penalty area where Brad Peters rose above everyone to power a headed clearance away to the edge of the penalty area, only for it to be headed straight back in to the danger area by Hythe’s Jack Steventon and Johan Caney-Bryan was quickest to react to turn the ball into the net from 4 yards.

The home-side doubled their lead on 59mins when a corner from the right was played into the Heath 6 yards box, the ball was missed by the Heath defenders on the near post and turned in through a crowd of player’s legs by Caney-Bryan for his second of the game.

Heath reduced the deficit with 15 minutes remaining from a corner of their own, when an unmarked Brad Peter’s headed home at the near post from a Louis Evans corner. The Bears pushed everyone forward in search of an equaliser but the home defence stood firm and held out to win the match and the points to move up to 6th place in the division.

The Bears now turn their attention to their next match, this one much closer at Littlehampton Town on Tuesday evening, Kick Off 7.45

Team: Hadfield, Peters, Kowalczyk, Penfold, Bromage, Brackpool, Evans, Mutongerwa, Aubrey, Lemon (Campbell 80), Lindsey (Doughty 66).