Broadbridge Heath moved into the top half of the Isthmian League Division One South East with a 1-1 draw at AFC Croydon Athletic (The Rams) on Saturday afternoon as they complete exactly one third of their league season.

For the match Heath were without Ben Holden and Charlie Connell both suspended, plus several other regulars missing through injury and on top of that skipper Brad Peters hadn’t realised the match had been brought forward to a 2pm kick off due to floodlight problems and arrived too late to make the starting line-up.

The Bears started well and came close to opening the score on 8 minutes when a Ben Royall throw-in from the left was launched towards the near post where a defender only managed to flick the ball on with a header and Zac Young came steaming in to fire a left foot shot that crashed against the underside of the crossbar before finally being cleared after a goalmouth scramble.

Broadbridge Heath continued to create the better chances and deservedly took the lead on 21 minutes when Bears goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield launched a drop-kick that was chased down by two Heath forwards, a defender tried to clear the danger in the right back position but only presented the ball to Sam Hards who ran inside with the ball at his feet before striking a right foot shot that curled around the Rams goalkeeper Amadou Tangara into the bottom right corner.

Minutes later another Royall throw-in from the left was headed on at the near post to Young who once again fired a left foot shot that saw the ball hit the underside of the crossbar before being cleared and on 28 minutes Rams had Tangara to thank again making a good save to deny Young’s long range effort.

The hosts best chance of the half came minutes later on the counter attack when Eddie Dsane broke away down the left flank and struck a fierce left foot shot which Hadfield saved brilliantly diving to his left, the ball came out to Kadell Daniel but the linesman’s flag was raised as the striker had drifted into an offside position and it remained 0-1 at the break.

The Rams didn’t take long to equalise when within minutes of the restart Josh Williams crossed the ball from the right wing into the 6 yard box to Eddie Dsane who cut in front of his marker to finish from close range. The game became a little scrappy after that, plenty of endeavour from both sets of players and some good approach work but that final pass or shot was often lacking.

Heath did finish with a flurry Young forcing Tangara into another fine save with a long range shot that the keeper saved well diving low to his left and then saving the follow up from Yuvi Mann with an outstretched leg and in time added-on Young headed a Mann cross from the right narrowly over the crossbar and it remained 1-1 at the final whistle.

Team: Hadfield, Thiselton (Peters 63), Royall, Buchanan, Hyde, Richardson, Bejashvili (Rawlins 68), Church (Marino 86), Hards, Young, Jeanes (Mann 52).