Broadbridge Heath 2-0 Hythe Town

Broadbridge Heath left it late to earn a 2-0 home victory against a very dogged Hythe Town team in the Isthmian League South East division after the visitors were reduced to men with Johan Caney-Bryan being shown a straight red in the 75th minute.

In what was a fairly quiet first 45 minutes the game certainly had the end of season feeling with both teams sitting comfortably in mid-table and neither side creating many chances.

For the visitors Bradley Schafer had the best opportunity on 30 minutes when he received the ball wide of goal and at a difficult angle but his right foot shot was sliced high and wide of target.

At the other end Heaths best chance came just before the break when a long drop-kick from George Evans put Mason Doughty through on goal but the striker also struck his left foot effort high and wide.

Heath started the second half much better and within minutes of the restart Callum Dowdell cut in from the right and fired a left foot shot just wide of Hythe goalkeeper Lewis Briggs left hand post and into the side netting; minutes later Louis Evans did something similar when he received the ball from Sam Lemon and struck a left foot shot from the edge of the 'D' that also went narrowly wide of the post.

At the other end a free-kick was played into the Heath penalty area to Bradley Schafer whose acrobatic overhead kick looked impressive but the end result meant another trip outside the ground for the ball boy.

The Bears continued on the attack and on 60 minutes Mason Doughty got around the back of the Hythe defence and played the ball across the face of goal to Dowdell coming in from the right but Briggs made a superb block to deny the striker, the ball came out to Evans who struck it first time but he was denied a certain goal by a superb diving block by defender Liam Smith to clear his lines.

On a rare foray into the Bears final third George Evans, Heath's goalkeeper, showed his class by saving a Jake Embery shot at his near post, denying the striker from giving his side the lead.

On 75 minutes Heath were given an advantage when Caney-Bryan was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Ben Aubrey and Hythe were down to ten.

Despite the disadvantage the hosts then went on to have their best spell of the game but without really troubling George Evans that was until the 89th minute when a Josh Wisson free kick from 25 yards was brilliantly saved by George diving to his left to push the midfielders curling right foot effort out to safety.

Into time added on and Heath finally broke the deadlock when a long Kyle Sim throw-in from the right found the head of Tad Bromage on the penalty spot who powered a header goalwards that went in off the underside of the crossbar, his 10th goal of the season.

There was still time for a second goal and it could so easily have been an equaliser when George was finally beaten by Wisson but skipper Ryan Brackpool saved the day with a last ditch clearance off the goal-line to deny Hythe an equaliser.

The ball was immediately played up the other end to Sam Lemon wide on the left who ran at the defence, cut inside a defender and hammered a right foot shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top right corner of the net to send the majority of the 304 spectators home happy.

Team: G. Evans, Sim, Chesworth, Penfold, Bromage, Brackpool, Buchanan (Mutongerwa 69), Dowdell (Aubrey 64), Lemon, L. Evans, Doughty (Lindsey 85).