Heath make heavy weather of it

To be fair, the visitors are a little improved and home boss Simon Corless, while delighted with another win, admitted: “I thought Midhurst did well but we did make hard work of it.”

It has taken his side time to get a foothold in recent matches but on Saturday they scored early when after only nine minutes Sean Ardley got away on the right and his cross was headed in by Rick Peacock.

It could have been just the springboard the hosts needed to go on for a comfortable win but within a minute Midhurst were level thanks to a wonder strike by James Turner, whose right foot thunderbolt from all of 25 yards left Graham Leach rooted to the spot.

Corless said of that: “There are times when goals like that come along where you just have to hold your hand up and say there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it. It was a brilliant strike.”

Certainly it took his team time to recover from that although Jamie Wanstall should have restored their advantage on 26 minutes. Ardley again got away on the right and when he pulled the ball back low, Wanstall came sliding in but scooped his shot way over the bar with the goal begging.

With the Midhurst defence very square, Heath always looked capable of scoring but visiting keeper Ian Knight played as an effective sweeper and in the first half was also equal to anything asked of him in the goalsaving stakes.

It was still 1-1 at half time and the second half began in almost identical fashion to the first, with Heath scoring 10 minutes in as a defensive error enabled midfield dynamo Tom Rabbetts to score with a fairly simple header.

But again Midhurst could have been level immediately as Luke Sheldrake easily worked himself space from a free kick played into his feet but put his effort against the bar.

Corless had brought on Ben Bacon five minutes earlier and used all three subs, including midweek signing from Storrington Marcus Robertshaw.

It helped pep things up and although Midhurst, much to their credit, never gave up, Heath had enough chances to have doubled the two more they added before in stoppage time Lawrence Hyde pegged one back.

Heath’s third came on 69 minutes courtesy of an horrendous miskick by keeper Knight, who barely made contact as the ball bobbled badly. Ben Hall hit the post before fellow sub Bacon put in the rebound.

The fourth goal arrived on 83 minutes and again substitutes played a key role although it was Mike Williamson’s run at speed that set up the chance. Bacon should have capitalised but in the end it was Robertshaw who was able to celebrate his debut with a simple tap-in.

That sealed another win that took Heath second and kept the pressure on their promotion rivals although it came at a price as Burgess Hill referee Ryan Ellis, who had a sound match, dispensed yellow cards to Alex Bygraves and Bacon.

Heath: Leach; Fiest, Bygraves, Gardner, Bevan (Robertshaw, 69); Rouane, Rabbetts, Williamson; Ardley (Bacon, 51), Peacock (Hall, 62), Wanstall.

Middy Starman: Mike Gardner, barely put a foot wrong.