Hardwell's a hit... Pagham's new boss gets a first-game win

With two new players making an appearance and a general shuffle around in the rest of the team it paid dividends on an old-fashioned mud bath of a pitch as heavy rain fell throughout.

For the first ten minutes, most of the play was at the Lions end and keeper Tom Crook had to make a couple of smart saves to keep the sides level.

Lindon Miller had the Lions first serious shot of the encounter, but it was well saved by Bromage in the Bears net and skipper Jack Barnes could only watch his rebound fly over the bar.

Pagham were pushing further forward and they got their reward in the 24th minute as Conor Geoghegan put his side in front with a thumping header from a Toby Funnell corner.

On 41 minutes it was almost 2-0 when Miller sent a shot wide of the post having been well set up by a debutant, the ex-Bosham man Marco Giambelardini.

Right on half-time a glorious chance to increase the lead came when Miller was brought down in the box and they were awarded a penalty. Miller though, rather blotted his copybook by lifting his spot-kick over the bar as the whistle went for half-time.

To prove that a minute is a long time in football, Broadbridge started the second half by attacking up the right-hand side and a stinging low cross was spilled by Crook, allowing Wanstall to equalise.

Slowly Pagham started to re-exert their dominance, although the Bears were still dangerous on the break, before, to much relief, Pagham re-took the lead in the 72nd minute, Joe Clarke crashing a header home from yet another Funnell corner.

Despite lots of effort from Broadbridge, the Lions seemed to be holding out reasonably well, and Lewis Jenkins finished the game off in the final minute, sliding home an excellent shot from a precision pass from fellow sub Cian Tilley.

Pagham: Crook, da Costa, Hallett, Clarke, Geoghegan, Clark, Carroll (Searle), Barnes, Miller (C Tilley), Giambelardini, Funnell (Jenkins). Subs not used: Lyne, Heryet.