I think it’s fair to say that the majority of Heath supporters travelling to ‘The Homecall Carpets Stadium’ home of Burgess Hill Town FC were not expecting too much from the game. The home side have been on a great run of form, eleven games without defeat and only one league defeat since the 10th August, a run that has seen the Hillians move into the playoff places.

While Chris Simmons’s Broadbridge Heath team were still missing several regulars through injury but came into the game full of confidence after two away victories in the past week.

The hosts started really well and on 5 minutes Heath goalkeeper Alfie Hadfield made the first of several saves he would make during the afternoon when Chris Whelpdale forced his way into the penalty area and struck a low shot which Hadfield deflected past the post with an outstretched leg. Minutes later Stefan Vukojie fired in a left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area which flew narrowly over the crossbar, and on 10 minutes Hamish Morrison’s cross from the right was headed over the bar by Whelpdale at the far post.

Heath’s first attack came 16 minutes into the game when James Archard advanced down the right and played a ball across the face of goal towards Mark Goldson who headed just wide of target. Minutes later Sal Marino received the ball in the middle of the park and played a forward pass between two defenders allowing Goldson to run through on goal and from 18 yards play a right foot shot wide of the advancing keeper into the bottom right corner.

The hosts continued to probe in search of the equaliser; Whelpdale tried his luck with a long range shot which was gathered comfortably by Hadfield but the Hillians should have been level on 33 minutes when Whelpdale took the ball to the Heath goal-line before pulling it back to Alex Brewer with the goal at his mercy and 6 yards out, but the midfielder blasted his shot high over the crossbar.

Minutes later Heath’s Charlie Parmiter received the ball wide on the left and split the defence with an inch perfect pass allowing Goldson to once again run through on goal, despite the close attention of a defender the Heath striker twisted and turned to shake off his marker before rifling in a low left foot shot wide of Hillians goalkeeper Slav Huk into the bottom right corner.

Action again switched to the other end when a left wing cross was headed goalwards by Ben Pope but straight into the arms of Hadfield. In the closing minutes Heath added a third when Callum Dowdell ran at the Hillians defence where he was brought down 12 yards from goal, an easy decision for the match referee and Goldson stepped up to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot with a right foot shot wide of the keeper to make it 0-3 at the break.

With a three goal advantage the second half was a case of attack verses defence with the Hillians having long spells of possession in the Heath half but the Bears defending superbly and still creating chances on the counter attack.

The home-side had a great chance to pull a goal back 5 minutes into the restart when Vukojie smashed the ball at point blank range straight at Brad Peters and the referee deemed it worthy of a penalty for handball, it looked a harsh decision given how close the player was. Ben Pope stepped up to take the spot kick which Hadfield saved superbly diving low to his left, the ball came back to Pope but Hadfield was up and dived in front of the player to clear the ball away.

At that stage it looked like it wasn’t going to be the Hillians day, despite dominating possession there were few clear-cut chances and the Heath defence marshalled by Bradley Peters and Kyle Sim looked solid and dealt with anything played into the penalty area.

The Bears still looked dangerous on the counter-attack and came close to adding to their score midway through the second half when Mason Doughty ran through and hit a right foot shot from distance that went narrowly wide of the post and 5 minutes later Sal Marino struck a long range shot that Huk pushed onto the post and out for a corner and it remained 0-3 at the final whistle.

A great result for Chris Simmons’s side, making it three away wins in a week and no midweek fixture this week which allows some of his walking wounded a well deserved rest and a chance for some of those knocks to heal.

Team: Hadfield, Archard, Terry (Chesworth 85), Marino, Peters, Sim, Dowdell, Parmiter (Waddingham 60), Goldson (Croal 69), Hay, Doughty (Berry 90+2).