City bounce back from first loss

Chichester City's manager Miles Rutherford had a mixed week / Picture by Chris Hatton

Read the latest from Oaklands Park below...

Chichester City 4 Broadbridge Heath 3

SCFL premier division

Chichester’s unbeaten league record was broken by leaders Shoreham, with two sloppy goals conceded in the first-half doing the damage before a much better City display after the break.

Shoreham are considered favourites for the title, and although facing their stiffest test to date, they found themselves presented with two gifts which ultimately determined the outcome.

On five minutes, George Gaskin was unmarked when receiving a cross from the right and had all the time in the world to neatly head in the opener.

In the 40th minute, a defensive error left the ball at the feet of strike-partner Rob O’Toole who slammed it past the exposed Max Whittingham in the City goal.

It was a disjointed first half for City, who had to make two early substitutions but had a couple of decent chances approaching half-time.

The Shoreham defence were in panic with Jake Gale lobbing a ball that bounced off the top of the bar, resulting in a scrambled effort from Scott Jones which lacked sufficient power.

On 43 minutes, Josh Clack’s well-delivered corner almost resulted in a Chichester goal but defender Mitchell Hand cleared off the line.

The introduction of Dan Watts in the second half provided City with more cutting edge, but a turning point came on 62 minutes when Watts gained a corner that was quickly cleared and led to a counter-attack to the other end.

Shoreham’s Jamie Cradock was tripped by the back-tracking Kieran Hartley in the box and O’Toole converted the spot-kick to make it 3-0.

Shoreham were content to sit back and Chichester were able to dominate. However, they had only one goal to show for it, when Clack produced a speedy run cutting straight through the middle and laying the ball off to Watts in his slipstream to rifle home.

City: Whittingham, Williams, Martin, Thoms, Lee, Horncastle, Clack, Hegarty, Jones, Gale, Hartley. Subs: Pashley, Case, Watts.

CHESTER BROWTON

* At home to Broadbridge Heath on Tuesday, Andy Howard and Shaun Findlay put Heath two up but three goals in eight second-half minutes by Jimmy Wild, Scott Jones and Harry Williams turned the game on its head.

Tiago Andrade levelled but Josh Case got a late winner.

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