Heath welcomed East Grinstead Town to the BodyMould Community Stadium on a pleasant Tuesday evening in November for a Pitching In, Isthmian League South-East Division fixture.

When the two sides met earlier in the season on the 10th September it was the Bears who picked up all three points in a 2-1 win thanks to a 93rd minute strike from Heath’s Charlie Parmiter but coming into this game Chris Simmons side were on their worst run of the season with four league defeats on the trot and hoping to change things with victory over the Wasps tonight.

The early exchanges were pretty even, for the visitor’s Marcel Campbell tried his luck with a shot from distance and at the other end Matt Hay, linking up well with Sam Lemon, hit a right foot shot from 25 yards but neither troubled the opposition goal-keepers.

On 39 minutes the Wasps were awarded a free kick wide on the right, they piled forward leaving just one man back with Heath’s Mason Doughty. The free kick was played deep towards the far post before falling to Jamie Buchanan who’d spotted Doughty on the halfway line and played a long ball forward for the Heath striker to chase which he did with aplomb leaving his marker trailing behind. Finlay Westen the Grinstead goalkeeper came sprinting off his line to meet him but Doughty was too quick and knocked the ball past the keeper and went on to score into an empty net for his third of the season.

The Bears made it 2-0 in first-half injury time when Matt Hay won the ball off Khalifa Jabbie wide on the right, he drove into the penalty area and picked his spot with a right foot shot into the bottom left corner.

Heath added a third 5 minutes into the restart when Buchanan sent Doughty scampering away down the right flank, he took the ball towards the goal-line before playing it inside to Mark Goldson on the edge of the box who turned on a sixpence and hit a left foot shot that kept low and went in at the post.

The visitors pulled a goal back on 62 minutes with a flowing move down the left flank that saw Matthew Daniel play the ball out wide to Connor Tighe and then continue his run into the penalty area where he received the ball back from Tighe and hammered a left foot shot that flew in a the near post.

Things got even better for Grinstead 3 minutes later when Oliver Spinks picked out Tighe wide on the left just outside the penalty area and the striker forced his way past two Heath players to rifle a left foot shot past Heath goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield to reduce the deficit to a single goal.

Neither side create many clear chances after that, for the visitors Tighe had a shot from the edge of the box blocked by Sean Terry, and for Heath Matt Hay hit a right foot shot that was gathered comfortably by Westen.

Into the closing stages Sean Terry, in the right back position, intercepted a Wasps through ball by giving it a huge wellie upfield, something Peter Kay would have been proud of, the ball was launched diagonally high into the night sky and into the opposition half where Callum Dowdell saw his chance to get on the end of it and he collected the ball and ran straight towards the Grinstead goal before drilling a low shot into the net to secure Heath’s victory.

The win see the Bears move above their opponents into 12th place ahead of their trip on Saturday to division leaders Beckenham Town.

Team: Hadfield, Terry, Chesworth, Buchanan, Marino, Lemon (Dowdell 75), Parmiter (Peters 75), Goldson (Croal 86), Hay, Doughty (Berry 60).