Broadbridge Heath put five past Stags – Horsham YMCA and Roffey share spoils – Steyning fight back at Hassocks

Boxing Day is a day when it’s traditional to play a derby in front of a big crowd and against one of your closest and most bitter rivals; unusually for Heath they found ourselves with a home fixture against newly promoted Midhurst & Easebourne, not really a derby given the distance between the two clubs – a long way for the Stags to go for an 11am kick-off

The Heath supporters and neutrals who did attend were able to witness a five-goal feast as the Bears put on the style with a comfortable victory to end the year just four points off the leaders Crawley Down Gatwick with a game in hand.

Heath manager Chris Simmons made several changes to his starting line-up with Matt Penfold out injured, Louis Evans unwell and Mason Doughty unavailable. The Bears started strongly, having a lot of possession in the opposition half and created several chances before finally opening their account on 20 minutes.

A free kick was awarded to Heath wide on the right, Jamie Chesworth placed the ball and hit a left foot cross that avoided a host of players and went straight in at the far post for the defender’s first goal for the club. Heath continued to create a hatful of chances but somehow they were unable to add to their score and it remained 1-0 at the break.

Heath doubled their lead three minutes after the restart, a good move down the right saw the ball played into Charlie Weller on the edge of the box, he played a back-heel pass into the path of Sam Lemon, whose right foot shot was deflected off a defender – and Charlie Parmiter nipped in to steal the ball away from the goalkeeper to score from close range.

Ryan Brackpool made it 3-0 on 57 minutes when he met Weller’s corner from the left with a powerful header from eight yards and the game was all but over midway through the half when Parmiter slipped the ball through to Alex Barbary to score with a right foot shot from the edge of the box beating the keeper at his near post.

The best was still to come deep into injury time when Brackpool played a cross field pass to Sean Terry running in from the right, the defender slipped the ball past a Midhurst player, advanced towards goal before rifling a left foot shot from 20 yards that flew past the Midhurst keeper into the net.

So it a very good end to the year for the Bears who have come on leaps and bounds this season – but they’re only at the halfway stage and there’s a lot of football to go.

Simmons said afterwards: “It was great to get back after a couple of weeks without a game and considering we had Christmas in between the lads played really well and looked fit & sharp, it was a good day all round, decent weather, 3 points, five different scorers, another clean sheet & a Senior debut for one of our U18’s Charlie Mark.

MOM was Adrian Britton-Todd on his first start for the club

Next up is another Bank Holiday match when BBH travel the short distance to play Alfold on Monday, January 2, 11am.

Bears: Matthews, Frankland (Terry 50), Chesworth, Waddingham (H.Mark 70), Sim, Brackpool, Weller, Todd, Barbary (Young 83), Parmiter (C.Mark 86), Lemon (Carvalho 55),

Horsham YMCA and Roffey had to settle for a point apiece in Goring Mead’s festive week derby in the SCFL premier division.

With YMCA without a home win for four months and Roffey yet to secure a victory this season, it was all to play for in Tuesday night’s tussle.

But the close fought encounter ended with honours even.

With the sizeable crowd sheltering from sweeping rain, in the first half there was end-to-end football with neither side looking too threatening – until just before half-time when George Cousins gave much-changed Roffey the lead.

Early in the second half YM hit the post, the ball rebounding to Archie Goddard to level the score.

Within a minute YM had the ball in the net again, only for the goal to be disallowed, as was a further strike a few minutes later, with invigorated YM ringing the changes and pressing hard.

Roffey, too, were thrusting, the last five minutes resembling a cup tie with both sides pushing for an elusive win. They had to share the points, which was a fair result, but Roffey – with much ground to make up at the bottom – look likely to break their duck soon.

- MARTIN READ

Hassocks 2 Steyning Town 3

SCFL premier

report from Richard WoodbridgeAfter 45 minutes of sluggishly working off the excesses of Christmas Day, the Barrowmen finally came good with a thrilling second-half comeback against Hassocks on Boxing Day.Steyning had endured a torrid first half in which they could not get a foothold in the game, and did not register a single shot either on target or off target. In fact Southam in the Hassocks goal was pretty much a spectator.Sloppy defending had led to Hassocks racing into a two-goal lead before the break. The first goal was after a square ball across the back four was intercepted and Benson latched on to it and made no mistake with a good finish.

Later in the half Town again conceded possession to allow Blake to double the lead, and it was the least the hosts had deserved after a half where they had fought and scrapped and pressured and harried, and just looked hungrier to win this game.

They had a solid shape and could have even scored more. To make matters worse for Town, Clark limped off after taking a knock. In a positive move he was replaced by Langford retuning after a month out with injury. Little did we know at this point what was to follow but it was certainly going to take something special for the Barrowmen to get back into this one.No doubt there were some harsh words in the Town dressing room at half-time. The coaching team made two changes, something they’ve not been afraid to do all season when needed, bringing on youth product 18-year-old Johnny Ruiz at centre back and putting a returning-from-uni Callum Chalmers up front alongside Johnson l-Fisher and Langford to make three up top as they reverted to a 433 formation.

However, no one could have predicted such a stunning turnaround was about to happen. On 54 minutes, Chalmers started the comeback, pouncing on some very poor defending to finish well. Suddenly, it was all Steyning as they roared forward at every opportunity.

The solid looking Hassocks side of the first half looked shell-shocked and seemed to have run out of steam. The second goal duly came as Langford cutting from the right finished well with a low shot into the bottom right hand corner from just outside the box.

Southam in the Hassocks goal had taken a few knocks and needed to be replaced by outfield player Broomfield. After this it seemed like only one team were going to win it. Johnson-Fisher was causing havoc down the left, as was Langford down the right. The midfield and defence were mopping up any sniffs as the blue army (in their away kit) attacked again and again. Dom J-F was thwarted twice, once by a very good save, and then again by a last-ditch block.The third and winning goal ultimately came after an inswinging corner from the left by the again impressive Jack Barnes somehow went into the net off the foot of a Hassocks defender.

This was justifiable reward for a quite incredible second-half display by Town. The main difference appeared to be desire and hunger to win the first and second balls and Plan B seemed to be going much more direct to the front three in the second half.

This seemed to do the trick as the trio up top had a field day in the second half. There was still time for the hosts to have a couple of corners near the end, but Lucas in the Town goal, after a busy first half, remained almost untroubled in the second half. Barnes went close to adding a fourth for Town as he hit the bar from outside the box and Johnson-Fisher had a rasping drive tipped over the bar by the Hassocks keeper.

This was another great win for the team, building on recent good results which sees them remain at fourth in the table, hanging on to those above in the table.

Steyning: Lucas, Clark, Hallett, Robinson, Da Costa, Barnes, Radley-Martin, Howell, Meehan, Johnson -Fisher, Downer. Subs used: Langford, Ruiz, Bradley, Chalmers, Geal.

In the SCFL premier on Monday, Alfold host Broadbridge Heath, as stated, while Steyning entertain YMCA, Loxwood visit Midhurst and Roffey host Hassocks.