Haywards Heath warm up for bosses’ return to Lancing – Burgess Hill beaten at Ashford

Alex Laing’s second half goal was cancelled out by a VCD equaliser with 15 minutes left – denying Heath a win that would have lifted them from 15th to 11th in the Isthmian south east table.

On Saturday they visit Lancing – the club joint bosses Alex Walsh and Dale Hurley have just left – in a crucial clash as both teams look to climb away from the danger zone.

Heath joint boss Walsh said: “It was a shame to concede with 15 minutes to go.

"However there wasn’t much in the game – especially in the first half, when neither team created much.

"It was a superb bit of quality from Alex Laing to break the deadlock for us and we had a couple more chances to extend our lead but unfortunately couldn’t.

"We are disappointed with the goal against us as we felt the decision for a free-kick shouldn’t have stood.

"But nonetheless we have to deal with it and move forward.

"We defended well after that as they had a couple of chances. So overall I think a point was a fair result for us."

Now Walsh and Hurley, and coach Matt Evans, take the Blues to the club they left last month, Lancing, who are just one point and two places behind Heath in the table.

Walsh said: “We’re looking forward to it. It will be good to see some faces again and hopefully we can put in a good account of ourselves.”

Meanwhile Burgess Hill are another side who can’t quite escape the tightly-packed section of the table that has six clubs – from 11th to 17th – separated by just a point.

Jay Lovett’s team looked on course for a superb win at high-flying Ashford when Lewis Finney and Dan Perry put them 1-0 then 2-1 up.

But Ashford scored twice in the final 10 minutes – with ex-Haywards Heath winger Gil Carvalho getting the winner on 90 minutes – to leave the Hillians empty-handed.

Burgess Hill are also involved in Sussex derby action this Saturday against a team right behind them.

They have a home game with Chichester City but it will be played at Three Bridges because of flood and fire damage to their clubhouse which is still being dealt with.