11 pictures as Haywards Heath Town win at Pagham in the SCFL premier

If the luck was with them Pagham might even have managed a draw. The Lions had the first shot of the game, Jamie Carrol knocked the ball into the box but Dan Simmonds over-head kick was straight at the keeper. The game carried on at a frantic pace with the Lions struggling to contain the Blues speed and the away side duly went in front after 20 minutes when a direct free-kick flew into the bottom corner of the net despite stand-in keeper Jordan Matthews’ despairing dive.

See Roger Smith’s pictures from the Nyetimber Lane clash on this page and the ones linked.

Pagham immediately kicked it up a gear and Simmonds won a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area and although his attempt was cleared the corner that followed caused chaos in the Blues defence which ended with the home side being awarded a penalty. Simmonds kick was well saved though and despite heaping more pressure on the away team no other chances were created for the rest of the half.

A scrappy start to the second half didn’t really produce much although Matthews was called on to make a couple of excellent saves as the Blues began to dominate proceedings. Disaster then befell the Lions when a catastrophic error by a home defender presented Heath’s Britton with a 71st minute chance he simply could not miss. With Pagham now struggling the Blues scored their third goal on 88 minutes. A corner from the left dropped into the middle of the box and was eventually bundled into the net to complete a miserable night for the Lions.