Despite the best efforts of Storm Austin the pitch at the Air Engineering Stadium, home of Broadbridge Heath FC, passed an 11.00am inspection for their Division One South East match against Herne Bay so it was Game On for those supporters brave enough to venture outside in what were horrendous weather conditions.

The heavy fixture schedule for Chris Simmons Broadbridge Heath side has certainly had an impact on the managers team selection with no fewer than nine players out through injury but despite that Simmo was still able to put together a competitive team for the visit of promotion hopefuls Herne Bay.

Broadbridge Heath got off to a great start on 5 minutes when their new signing from Three Bridges Ben Holden intercepted a goal-kick on the halfway line and played the ball straight down the right channel for Zac Jeanes to chase down and cross the ball to the far post where Bay’s goalkeeper Tom Wray could only parry the ball out to Sam Hards who reacted like lighting to fire in a left foot shot for his fifth of the season.

The visitors equalised on 38 minutes when they were rewarded a free-kick deep in their own half in the left back position, Ryan Kingsford placed the ball and played a long pass straight down the middle of the park to Emmanuel Robe who held off a Heath defender before playing a pass inside to Ade Adeez who drilled a low right foot shot from 18 yards past Bears goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield to make it 1-1

Broadbridge Heath responded well and regained the lead a minute before the break when Ben Royall received the ball midway through the half and made headway towards the Herne Bay penalty area before striking a fierce left foot shot that zipped off the wet surface and was pushed away by Wray diving low to his left, the ball went straight to Jack Church who took it around the prostrate keeper to score from close range, giving the Bears a narrow lead at the break.

With the weather conditions deteriorating, driving rain and swirling winds, the visitors drew level 5 minutes into the restart with a flowing down the right hand side, before an interchange of passes between Robe, Kingsford and Tariq Ossai ended with the ball being played to the feet of Josh Ajayi whio skipped past two defenders before hammering a right foot shot into the roof of the net 2-2.

The game turned in Herne Bays favour on 66 minutes when Ben Holden was harshly judged to have fouled Josh Ajayi, the referee showing the Broadbridge Heath player a yellow card before realising he’d already been shown a yellow earlier in the game and Heath were down to ten players.

Both sides had chances to win the game, Bays Codey Cosgrove shooting wide when well placed while at the other end Zac Jeanes drilled a right foot shot that was well saved by Wray but it remained 2-2 at the final whistle.

Team: Hadfield, Thiselton, Royall (Al Meskin 89), Holden, Peters, Salaam (Richardson 64), Bejashvili (Mann 64), Church (Buchanan 74), Hards (Rawlins 82), Connell, Jeanes.