Broadbridge Heath hammer Loxwood in final home game

Andy Waddingham scored twice for Broadbridge Heath. Picture by Steve Robard

Broadbridge Heath won convincingly in their final home game of the season, beating ten-man Loxwood 5-0 in the Premier Division on Tuesday night.

It took just two minutes for Heath to take the lead, after Devon Fender set up Mason Doughty to steer a right-footed shot across the goalkeeper in via the post.

Ten minutes later, things got worse for the Magpies as goalkeeper Liam Matthews was shown a straight red card for deliberate handball. Captain Hugo Cowan donned the gloves for the remainder of the game but when Doughty smashed the resultant free kick into the top corner, the outcome looked inevitable.

After 30 minutes, Loxwood’s Lewis Broughton had to be replaced and Tom Frankland came on as the visitors re-shuffled.

Seconds before the half, a scramble following a corner fell to Andy Waddingham who fired a volley into the bottom corner to make the half time score 3-0.

Two minutes into the second half, Doughty was forced off through injury with Renato Carvalho replacing him.

Ten minutes later, Heath made it four when a flick on from Fender found George Cousins who volleyed into the bottom left corner.

Another forced Loxwood substitution came on 59 minutes as sub Frankland was replaced by Mark Goldson.

A double substitution for the Bears then saw Louis Blake and Jamie Robinson replace Fender and Cameron Watts after 70 minutes.

The game evened out towards the final periods, and the Magpies brought on Elliott Bennett for Jay Popham after 81 minutes.

Heath managed to notch one more before the end, as Waddingham grabbed his second of the game on 89 minutes with a curling shot that found the bottom right corner.

Broadbridge Heath manager Steve Painter was delighted with the performance from his team, as he said: “I thought we were good tonight. From the first two or three minutes you could see we were up for it and in the first-half we played some really good football. We were the much better side.”

Loxwood manager Alex Walsh was less impressed with his team, saying: “It’s one we have to try and move on very quickly from. Maybe we came here with a little bit of complacency, but we’ll learn from it. We’ve got to be much better if we’re going to pick up three points on Saturday.”

Heath and Loxwood round off their seasons away at Arundel and at home to East Preston respectively.

Heath: Thorp, Flack, Watts (Blake 70), Peters, Brackpool, Waddingham, Carney, Doughty (Carvalho 47), Fender (Robinson 70), Taylor, Cousins. Unused: Evento.

Loxwood: Matthews, Courtney, Hooper-Ridsdale, French, Boiling, Cowan, Broughton (Frankland 30, Goldson 59), Fowler, Dawson, Mutongerwa, Popham (Bennett 81). Unused: Robinson, Smith.