Golds win pleases Painter with Heath in a '˜good place'

The Bears completed a hat-trick of victories over their ten-man visitors in what boss Painter praised as one of their best showings of the season.

A first-half deflected goal from Jack Lyons set Heath on their way to the 3-2 win, before Golds’ player-manager George Gaskin was slipped through just before the break and levelled.

With 20 minutes left Jake Holmes got across Josh Bates in the box from a Lyons through-ball and the defender clipped the Heath player.

Bates was shown a straight red card and Holmes picked himself up to convert from the spot to restore the lead.

Holmes then added a second with two minutes to go after a lovely cross from the right by substitute Billy Bason on his debut.

Marcus Robertshaw did pull another late goal back for the visitors as he outpaced an injured Stuart Chester and rounded goalkeeper Michael Chester, but it was another scant consolation.

Painer said: “It was a really good game. Littlehampton had a real good go at it, but on the night, we deserved to win.

“We were good, to be fair, I was really pleased with the lads.

“I have said before, on our day we can beat anyone, but getting the right team out is our problem.

“I am really pleased at the moment, we are in a good place, but we need to keep going.

“We still have a lot to come back in.

“Andy Waddingham is out, Rob Godfrey is unavailable and Merb Bhujun and Timmy Martin are out.

“When we lost Tiago Andrade (Kingstonian) and Ollie Moore (Loxwood), I did think ‘where are the goals going to come from? Who will step up?’.

“Jake Holmes scored two again against Littlehampton – he is probably the best finisher in the club on his day, he just needs to stay fit.

“I was looking at him to provide them now, but everyone keeps chipping in, so we are in a really good place, with people still to come back in.

“It was one of the best performances of the season, but there are a lot of games coming up. Two a week now, so we need that strengthen in depth.

“Our aim was to finish above last season’s ninth, it would be nice to push into the top six.

“I do not think it’s quite achievable as we need the teams above us to drop points, but we will not give up on it.”

Painter also praised central midfielder Piers McDermott for his recent contributions.

He said: “He has played in there for the past month and been outstanding. We lost Andy Waddingham four games ago and he sticks us together in there, he’s our glue. But Piers has stepped up to mark after I asked him to play holding miedfield, he has been remarkable.

Heath: M.Chester, S.Chester, Flack, Howard, Robinson, Ozga (Legrange 3), McDermott, J.Lyons (Mutungi 80), Findlay, Weller (Bason 70), Holmes.

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