Exposed – but Bognor Regis Town won’t change principles after early setback

Bognor were 3-0 down when Higgs took to the pitch and he sparked hopes of a comeback with two goals but Robbie Blake’s men couldn’t draw level despite a spirited late fightback.

Blake was disappointed with his side's defending and cited the missing Craig Robson as a reason for a fragility at the back. he said: "We are a young side and when you take out of that equation the likes of Craig Robson that leaves us exposed and indeed that was the case for the first three goals.

"Robbo is a massive player for us and a big loss whenever he doesn’t play — and that may sound like an excuse it is anything but. It’s a fact! He is so influential, so calm, so experienced and I honestly think that had he played against Cheshunt it would’ve been a different story.

"That’s not being too critical of Tyler Edmondson, the young lad who came in to replace him. He has just come out of Academy football and now he is probably realising there is a huge step up between that and what we call men’s football. It’s the same with Hayden Gale, the young fullback we have on loan from Dorking Wanderers, as well as Rocco Gamblin, who we signed from Worthing in the summer.

"They are all excellent footballers and gifted technically, but what they might lack is that steely edge that is so necessary in our game. I believe they will attain that toughness but it is a process and at the age they are we must allow them to develop and sometimes that will catch us out.

"But we will not abandon our principles of play — when I look back at the game on Saturday, it was a lack of strength in our own box with our defending but cost us rather than them cutting us open. In other words tactically we did nothing different and they didn’t expose us on that front, but the weakness, in repelling their attacks, did for us.

"At 3-0 down you don’t have a lot of options but the substitutions we made, especially Harvey Whyte and Tommy-Lee Higgs made a big difference. Tommy likes to get in those pockets and is a constant threat and he will be very good player for us this season. Harvey has missed a lot of preseason training so we couldn’t risk him for the full 90 minutes but when he came on, he showed that class that we all know he’s got. He’ll get fitter and we’ll get better because of it."

Blake chose to give debuts to striker Callum Barlow, attacker RoccoGamblin and defender Gale, while recently signed Edmondson came in for the injured Robson and Joe Besant also got his bow with Ryan Hall still suffering from a shoulder injury.

Sam Granville scored his first goal for the Ambers to give the hosts the lead after 15 minutes.

Kai Brown picked out his late run into the box and he fired right into the top right corner giving Joe Besant in the visitors’ goal no chance.

But it wasn’t long before the hosts doubled their lead, going 2-0 up on 19 minutes. The goal came about when Nathaniel Orafu expertly headed home in Dernell Wynter’s cross past a despairing Besant.

Then the Rocks could have easily gone 2-0 down when Kai Brown volleyed a Taylor Miles cross over the crossbar.

Blake decided to make a change at the interval and the versatile Harvey Whyte replaced youngster Gamblin.

There was more woe for Bognor shortly after the second period kicked off though. Brown made it a brace to give Cheshunt a 3-0 lead on 50 minutes and Blake’s men looked to have a challenge to get anything from the game.

And on 53 minutes Jasper Mather came on for Gale as Blake tried to either instigate a comeback from the visitors or perhaps a more realistic view is that he was keen to tighten things up. Another change followed four minutes later when Gifford was replaced by Higgs.

The forward made a quick impact by slotting home from the penalty spot on 72 minutes to make it 3-1 as hopes were raised that the visitors could get something from the encounter.

Doug Tuck replaced Edmondson on 75 minutes as Blake looked for some creativity from the summer signing from Horsham.

The Rocks pulled it back to 3-2 with a second goal from Higgs on 79 minutes thanks to a clever Burgess assist.

Finn Evans replaced Lucas Pattenden on 81 minutes as Bognor pushed for the equaliser.

The Rocks piled on the pressure in the latter stages and Tommy Block went close with a header late on but the visitors couldn’t find the leveller.

Bogno: 1 Joe Besant, 2 Calvin Davies,3 Hayden Gale (Jasper Mather 53′), 4 Tommy Block, 5 Spencer Spurway, 6 Tyler Edmondson (Doug Tuck 75′), 7 Lucas Pattenden, (Finn Evans 81′), 8 Matt Burgess, 9 Callum Barlow, Dan Gifford (Tommy-Lee Higgs 57′). Rocco Gamblin (Harvey Whyte 45′) Subs: 12 Tommy-Lee Higgs, 14 Jasper Mather, 15 Harvey Whyte, 16 Doug Tuck, 17 Finn Evans.

The Rocks are quickly back in Isthmian action this evening (Tues 13) at home to Lewes.