Broadbridge Heath played host to relegation threatened Hastings United in the Isthmian League South East, the third meeting of the two sides this season with Heath having won the two previous encounters. Before the match supporters were asking if this would be a hat-trick of wins for ‘The Bears’ or could it be a case of third time lucky for ‘The U’s’.

Hastings Damian Theordore gave the visitors the lead on 3 minutes when a mistake in the Heath defence saw the ball worked round to Theordore wide on the left and the forward cut inside towards the Heath penalty area before hitting a fierce right foot shot from just outside the ‘D’ that saw the ball fly past Heath goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield giving the away side the perfect start.

The gale force winds made conditions difficult for both sides with ‘The Bears’ first noteworthy attempt at goal coming on 15 minutes when Sean Terry ran at the Hastings defence and hit a left foot shot from the edge of the box that United’s goalkeeper Harry Haines pushed around the post for a corner.

Minutes later it was 0-2 when the Heath defence failed to clear their lines and the ball was played into Jordan Mase just inside the penalty area and the former Roffey striker touch a touch with his right foot to setup a strike with his left that dipped under Hadfield into the bottom right corner sending the away fans into joyous celebrations.

Heath reduced the deficit on 34 minutes when Charlie Connell intercepted a pass wide on the right just outside the Hastings 18 yard box and played it inside to Zac Young’s who shot was charged down by a defender, the ball came back out to Louis Evans who struck a left foot shot from 20 yards that dipped over Haines to make it 1-2 at the break.

Heath started the second half well with Yuvi Mann getting in behind the left fullback and playing a pass across the face of goal to Young who fired narrowly wide of the post and minutes later a fierce right foot shot from Evans was saved brilliantly by Haines diving low to his left to push the ball away but it was the visitor’s who restored their two goal advantage on 51 minutes with their first attack of the half, a straight forward long high ball down the middle of the park, Hadfield came out of his penalty area to clear but only managed to head the ball a few yards where it was picked up by Lukas Franzen-Jones who played it across the face of goal to Theordore to hammer a right foot shot into the back of the net to make it 1-3.

The game then went into a quiet spell with neither side threatening the score-line until the 90th minute when Heath’s Mason Doughty received the ball wide on the left and went on a run inside, skipping past two defenders before hammering a right foot shot from at least 30 yards that was still rising when it hit the back of the net to give his side hope at 2-3.

However any hope of a recovery were short-lived as from the kick-off a long ball down the right flank was chased down by a Hastings player before finding its way inside to Max Walsh who looked up and picked his spot with a left foot strike into the back of the net sending the Hastings fans behind the goal into a frenzy.

After the game on social media Heath manager Chris Simmons said “Sums up our season, really good 2nd half and result last week, but so poor again today, defensively no where near good enough at this level. Quality on the ball poor today!”

Team: Hadfield, Haftom, Gibson, Marino, Terry (Napper 65), Richardson, Bejashvili (Doughty 65), Connell, Young, Evans, Mann (Abudiore 65).