Broadbridge Heath 2-0 Littlehampton Town

In the Isthmian League South East division Broadbridge Heath came out on top against their former County League opponents Littlehampton Town at the BodyMould Stadium, with the Bears winning by 2-0.

The first attempt on goal came on 6 minutes when Heath’s Mason Doughty received the ball from Matt Penfold and tried his luck with a left foot shot from 25 yards that fizzed just over the crossbar.

The visitor’s fist clear chance of the game came midway through the half when Nordirbek Bobomurodov cut in from the right flank and struck a left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area which was punched clear by Heath stopper Alfie Hadfield.

A minute later Heath were awarded a free kick deep in their own half, the ball was played forward by skipper Ryan Brackpool to Ashley Mutongerwa who played it inside to Doughty who struck a fierce right foot shot from 20 yards that beat a diving James Binfield but came off the foot of the post before being cleared away to safety.

In the closing minutes of the half Jake Lindsey received the ball on the halfway line from Brackpool and ran at the Town defence before interchanging passes with Doughty, weaving past two defenders and slotting the ball past Binfield into the bottom right corner of the net to make it 1-0 at the break.

The visitors started the second half on the front foot but were restricted mainly to long range shooting, the closest they came to an equaliser was on 68 minutes when substitute striker Fareed Saidu Salifu’s left foot shot went through a crowd of players legs before hitting the foot of the post and going out for a goal-kick.

Minutes later a right foot rocket from Matt Penfold from 35 yards crashed against the underside of the Littlehampton crossbar before being cleared.

With 10 minutes remaining Heaths Matthew Hay was brought down in the penalty area and skipper Ryan Brackpool stepped up to slot the resulting spot kick past Binfield to complete the scoring.

Next up for the Bears is a trip to Sevenoaks Town on Saturday 2nd March, Kick Off 3.00.

Team: Hadfield, Sim, Chesworth, Brackpool, Bromage, Penfold, Mutongerwa (Hay 55), Buchanan, Doughty (Berry 65), Lemon (Waddingham 85), Lindsey.