Wins for Bosham and Newtown Villa and a thrilling draw for Wittering feature in our latest round-up from the West Sussex League.
Bosham 1 Faygate Utd 0
Premier division
A solitary goal from Nick Edgington early in the second half was enough for the leaders to suffer their first defeat of the season and enable Bosham to close the gap at the top to eight points with three games in hand.
Both defences were strong, meaning chances were few and far between.
Josh Maitland, on his debut for Bosham, looked sharp on his first outing and showed good pace and agility to work space down the right and place teasing balls into the box.
The first real effort on goal came for Ben Jenner for the Yellows close to the half hour, when he got free of his marker in the box and shot low from close range only for Simon Hasted to save well.
Bosham upped the tempo and James Wilson beat the offside trap but was unable to put the ball pastd Lee Amos in the Faygate goal.
Leigh Thompson tried his luck for the visitors when he was put through but shot wide from the edge of the box.
Maitland had a wonderful chance to open his Reds account, only for a combination of bar and post to deny the striker.
A minute into the second period osham surged forward and Williams provided a sublime cross straight on to the head of Edgington, who headed powerfully past Amos to break the deadlock.
Dane Ricker worked tirelessly for the Yellows and came close on a couple of occasions to grabbing an equaliser but Bosham showed great resolve to hold on for a very valuable three points to close the gap on the visitors.
BOSHAM: Hasted, Redman, Probee, Wilson, Edgington, Jack Hancock, Joe Hancock, Redman, Maitland, Docherty, Davies. Subs: Evans, Greenhalf.
n Bosham would like to thank all who participated in the charity game at Walton Lane in which Bosham Vets beat a Bognor team 3-0. The match was well supported and £730 was raised for the Macmillan cancer nurses - a fantastic effort.
ALAN PRICE
Lavant 1 Newtown Villa 2
Premier division
Matt Doyle’s 56th-minute header from a Matt Robb corner clinched this game for the visitors at Raughmere Park.
Lavant started well but Newtown gradually worked their way into it. The game had few chances and was evenly balanced until Bryn Hauxwell drove a 25-yard shot through a ruck of players.
Lavant keeper Neil Sanson, who was unsighted, did well to block the shot but Matt Russell was first to the rebound to put Villa ahead on 27 minutes.
The home side were too anxious to level the score and their passing game suffered as a result.
Hopeful balls on the edge of the attacking third were easily picked up by the visitors’ defence.
After half-time Lavant were more patient but hopes of levelling the score were dashed when Doyle hit what turned out to be the winner.
Home manager David Parker made a double substitution and changed the formation to give emphasis to a more attacking game. This was rewarded when they were awarded a penalty as James Sandford was upended in the box.
James Brooks pulled Lavant back into it from his 61st-minute spot-kick. A Sandford cross gave Mike Bartley a chance to grab the equaliser but he failed to connect with his header.
Lavant full-back Matt Lyttle commented: “It’s going to be like this for us in the premier - only one goal in it. And with few chances, we have to make each one count.”
LAVANT: Sanson; Coe, Purgavie, Wright, Lyttle; Neville, Brooks, Stevens, Weller; Sandford, Bartley. Subs: Smith, Holmes, Lillywhite, Baylis, Phillips.
Henfield 3 Wittering Utd 3
Division one
The last two 100 per cent division-one records both fell as honours were shared.
The Warriors dominated the first 30 minutes but found the Henfield keeper in superb form.
Wittering should have opened the scoring on 15 minutes when Tom Kelly was controversially adjudged to have been brought down in the area. Barry McCoy’s penalty was saved.
Against the run of play Henfield took the lead in bizarre fashion. The winger ran at Spencer Stent and fired in a cross that deflected off Stent’s hand into the onrushing forward, who fired his shot just wide.
With advantage played the referee pulled the play back. From the resulting free-kick, Henfield took the lead with a brilliant free-kick that curled around the wall and into the top corner.
It was 2-0 when a slip from Dan Cowell allowed the Henfield centre0forward in on goal. Keeper Ash Rochester advanced but the shot trickled into the net.
In stoppage time the Warriors pulled one back when a long throw from Kelly was bravely headed in from Darran Cox from five yards.
The equaliser arrived on 54 minutes as Joe Jefkins levelled the score. Man of the match Greg Robinson whipped in a corner from the right that was met by a towering header from Kelly, with Jefkins diverting the ball home from a yard.
The Wittering defence gifted the home side the lead again with a Henfield forward firing low past Rochester to make it 3-2 to Henfield.
Wittering weredenied two penalty claims and Robinson bent a free-kick against the post.
Wittering were awarded another penalty when Jamie Smith was brought down in the box. Cox fired the ball into the bottom corner to bring the sides level again.
WITTERING: Rochester, Stent, Cowell, McCoy, Smith, J Jefkins (Cooper), Sheppard (Pearce), T Jefkins, Robinson, Cox (Westcott), Kelly.
Chapel 3 Hammer Res 4
Div five south
Chapel started the stronger and went ahead through Dan Scutt after three minutes. Lee Bayliss added a second for Chapel two minutes before the interval.
Hammer started the second half strongly and were soon level through Ben Phillips and Ben Martin.
Chapel hit back when a shot came off the bar and the keeper before Aaron Carver forced it home.
Hammer won it with two goals from Steve Jackson inside 15 minutes, the first a penalty.
The game ended with Chapel on top but Hammer hung on for the points.
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