Broadbridge Heath Bears welcomed a new look East Grinstead Town to the BodyMould Community Stadium for this Isthmian League South East division match. The visitor’s are under new management and have a completely different team to the one Heath played in the Velocity Cup just a few weeks earlier.

The Bears got off to a great start taking the lead on 7 minutes when Charlie Gibson intercepted a pass wide on the left and played a 1:2 with Zac Young before crossing the ball first time into the penalty area to Emmanuel Abudiore who steered a left foot shot from 8 yards wide of Grinstead goalkeeper Daniel O’Donovan.

Gibson was involved in Heath’s second 5 minutes later with another first time left foot cross into the box where it was converted from close range by Jake Lawrence firing a right foot shot wide of O’Donovan for his 6th goal in 8 starts since joining the club.

Heath continued to push forward in search of goals, Abudiore had a left foot shot from distance gathered comfortably by O’Donovan, Young was unlucky with a left foot shot from 20 yards that went narrowly wide of the post, Gibson struck a fierce left foot shot from 25 yards that flew just over the crossbar and Sean Terry had his goal-bound effort saved by O’Donovan.

At the other end in the closing minutes of the half a long ball was played up to Dan Perry who shrugged off a defender and hit a right foot shot from 20 yards that flew past Heath goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield and cannoned off the post to safety and in time-added on a corner from the right was played to Grinstead captain Curtis Gayer who hit a right foot shot just wide of the post into the side netting and it remained 2-0 at the break.

Heath extended their lead a minute into the restart when Louis Evans played the ball forward to Lawrence who beat the offside trap and ran through unopposed before poking the ball past the advancing O’Donovan for Heath’s third.

Grinstead had a let-off on 53 minutes when a Gibson corner from the left saw O’Donovan try to gather at the ball at the near-post but the keeper, under pressure from Elliott Romain, only managed to push the ball into his own net but the referee harshly judged a foul had been committed and the goal was disallowed.

Heath made it 4-0 on 78 minutes when Young intercepted a misplaced pass and sent Callum Dowdell through on goal wide on the right, the Heath winger sprinted towards goal before hitting a right foot shot that was blocked by O’Donovan but Dowdell was quickest to react, pounced on the loose ball and fired it into the empty net.

Heath completed the scoring in the 85th minute when Young advanced down the left, got behind the Grinstead defence, pulled the ball back from the goal-line to Luke Bejashvili, a defender was quick to clear the ball which went straight to Luke Staight who fired home from 12 yards to complete Heath’s equal best ever result since joining the Isthmian League 3 seasons ago.

After the game Heath manager Chris Simmons said “The lads were electric last night, we came flying out of the blocks. Great football, another 5 goals at Home but more importantly a clean sheet!”

Team: Hadfield, Staight (Pettipher 88), Gibson (Wooster 64), Marino, Hyde, Terry, Young, Romain, Lawrence (Bejashvili 74), Evans (Cousins 86), Abudiore (Dowdell 62).