Sheppey United 1-0 Broadbridge Heath

Heath manager Chris Simmons made five changes to the starting line-up for the trip to Sheppey United with Jamie Buchanan coming into midfield for the Covid suffering Louis Evans, Matt Penfold was back from his winter holiday, striker Ashley Mutongerwa making a rare start, Sam lemon returning to the starting line-up and we saw the welcome return of central defender Kyle Sim, who transferred from Lancing during the week.

A fairly quiet start to the match with Heath’s Ashley Mutongerwa having the first attempt on goal on 8 minutes with a right foot shot wide of the post and on 26 minutes Sheppey’s D’Jean Bessey-Saldanha striking a right foot shot from distance wide of Alfie Hadfield’s right hand post.

Heath’s best chance of the half came of 30 minutes when Matt Penfold intercepted a pass in the centre of the park, played it forward to Lemon who immediately sent Zac Young away down the left flank, the fullback drilled a left foot cross in to Ben Albury at the near post whose stretched out his right leg putting the ball just over the Sheppey crossbar.

The home-side responded with Frankie Del Morgan hitting a fierce left foot drive from distance that Hadfield tipped over the bar and Briggs Ojemen came close heading a left side corner over the Heath crossbar. In the closing minutes of the half Hadfield again denied Del Morgan making a fine save from the fullback’s left foot rocket but it remained 0-0 at the break.

Sheppey started the second half well but were unable to break down the Bears defence with Hadfield putting in a ‘Man of The Match’ performance. Heath did have their chances with Tad Bromage heading a corner from the left wide of the post but just as it looked as though Simmons side would pick up a hard earned point, disaster struck when a Heath attack was thwarted by the Sheppey goalkeeper Aiden Prail rushing out of goal to intercept a pass, the ball was played up to James Taylor in the centre-circle and the forward ran towards the Heath goal before unleashing a right foot shot from 23 yards that flew past Hadfield much to the pleasure of the majority of the 367 supporters watching the game.

Heath finished the game strongly with three corners, a goal mouth scramble and blocked attempts at goal but the home-side held out to earn the points which see them move back into the division playoff places.

Team: Hadfield, Archeampong (Lindsey 62), Young, Sim, Bromage, Brackpool, Penfold, Buchanan (Barlow 76), Aubrey, Mutongerwa (Khallouqi 84), Lemon.