Bognor bosses say victories don't always have to be relaxed - reaction and match highlights

Dan Smith scored the winner in the 89th minute after Barry Hayles had cancelled out Tommy Leigh's goal, as Bognor made it eight wins in a row with a 2-1 victory over Merstham at Nyewood Lane.

Blake said: “We’re really happy because early on in the season we could have lost that game. It’s a couple of times now teams have equalised but we’ve bounced back and got the win and it’s really positive for us.

“The boys deserve all the plaudits they get, to make it eight wins out of eight is remarkable.”

Bognor v Merstham picture specialMerstham's equaliser with 10 minutes to spare could have ended the Rocks impressive winning streak. And Blake said winning a game like this one could sometimes feel better than the sort of 6-1 thrashing the Rocks dished out to Margate in midweek.

“When we go a couple of goals up we can play some really nice football and we relax, but it’s nice we have a side that can win ugly as well," he said. "We want to play entertaining football for the fans but this was one of those games we had to grind out the result and we did that.”

Ashton Leigh was one of the standout players for Bognor and was at the heart of the action for most of Bognor’s attacks. Blake was impressed with the youngster’s performance: “Ashton was outstanding, everything he did was great. He was all over the pitch and played exceptional, he knuckles down and if he misses out on a game he bounces back and proves to be a real asset for us.”

The game was slightly overshadowed by the early injury to Doug Tuck, who came off after ten minutes and was replaced by Harvey Whyte, although Blake is optimistic his spell on the sidelines wont last long.

“We’ve caught it at the right time, he complained about his hamstring but we took him off at the right time so fingers crossed that if he does miss next week’s game he’ll be back pretty soon," Blake said.

Next weekend Bognor travel to National League South side Tonbridge Angels in the FA Trophy, and Blake is hopeful his side can cause an upset.

“It’s going to be a tough game, but we will go there with confidence and belief we can win the game," he said. “We’ve got good players and they will look at our form and know it’ll be tough.”

Rocks manager Jack Pearce was also delighted with the Merstham win and said it was the sort of afternoon that would bring fans back to Nyewood Lane.

“The last thing they’ll remember is us scoring with only a few minutes to go to win the game and it would make them want to come back and watch again," said Pearce.

“Some might have felt when they equalised that was it, but we created a lot of chances and it’s excellent the way we won today and grabbed all three points.”

* This Friday (Nov 22) brings Bognor's postponed annual fireworks display at Nyewood Lane and Pearce stresses the importance of the community to attend the event as it is a major way of raising money for the club.

“In the past 35 years it has been Bognor’s biggest fundraising event of the year and it’s really important for the community to take part and watch the display," he added. “I hope we can get as many people as possible to come, the more the better and hopefully it’ll be a lovely evening.” Gates open at 5pm.