Home team Pagham secured all three points with a 1-0 win against Bexhill United at Nyetimber Lane on Saturday.
Both sides had come into the fixture with good victories the previous weekend – Bexhill after turning the game around with a last minute 2-1 win over high-flying Horsham YM and Pagham with a stunning 4-2 result over the water at Guernsey.
The points secured left both Pagham and Bexhill well established in the chasing pack in the SCFL behind runaway leaders Haywards Heath.
Bexhill had to make a couple of enforced changes to their starting line up with Max Hollobone suspended and the in-form Jaan Stanley picking up a knock in mid-week training.
Weather conditions and the pitch were both excellent but, despite high pre-match expectations, the first half was a tough and uninspiring affair as both sides pretty much cancelled each other out.
On the half hour, Stef Akras made an excellent point-blank reflex save in the Bexhill goal to keep the scores level. That’s how it stayed as the sides went in to the break.
The opening exchanges in the second half were a bit livelier, but it was not until the 67th minute that the opening and decisive goal came for Pagham, scored by Harry Giles after a lapse of concentration in the Pirates defence opened the door.
It sparked Bexhill into their most creative period of the game, with fresh legs thrown on to jazz things up, and they pushed on in search of an equaliser.
However, it wasn’t until extra-time that they found the net, only to have the goal chalked off for offside in the approach play. Will Saunders finished well but the flag had already been raised for the nod down that set him up.
It felt from quite early on in the match that one goal might be enough to win it and so it proved with the home side maintaining their impressive early season run of form.
