Pagham beaten - but only after giving Lancing a scare

Once again, the wind played a major part in this encounter and with the home side getting its benefit in the first half, it took an excellent defensive display to keep the Lancers out.

Keeper Jordan Matthews was in action on several occasions with outstanding saves in the 13th and 34th minutes, while in the opposite goal, Mitch Bromage was relatively untroubled.

With the change of half, the wind favoured the Lions, but they could not take advantage of it for some time, although Matthews caused some panic for Bromage when his 100-yard length-of-the-pitch punt bounced just wide early on.

The Lancers took the lead in the 52nd minute with a very well-worked goal, Andrew Briggs scoring from inside the area. Disaster befell Pagham eight minutes later when they gave away a penalty with a late tackle inside the box. They couldn’t really complain, though, as league leading scorer Lewis Finney stroked home with ease.

The Lions finally showed their claws three minutes later when Jack Barnes, set up by Callum Chalmers, smashed a 30-yard volley that Bromage did well to tip over. Five minutes later and it was Toby Funnell’s turn to try his luck but his shot from about the same distance flew straight at the keeper.

Chalmers set up Lukas Franzen-Jones but he saw his shot drift wide, before Barnes tried his luck once again from around 25 yards out and this time Bromage could only parry the shot, allowing Chalmers to tap home the rebound and halve the deficit.

Both teams had chances after that, Lancing having trouble with the wind to keep their shots on target, while Pagham twice had the ball bounce around in the Lancers penalty area but failed both times to get a foot on it when it mattered.

Pagham manager Kerry Hardwell was reasonably content with his team's performance at Culver Road. He said: "The boys were excellent again against a strong Lancing team. We set up a certain way and for long periods of the game frustrated Lancing.

"We were sloppy after half-time which resulted in us falling two goals behind, however the character this group has now we got ourselves back into the game and should have really nicked a deserved point right at the end but unfortunately didn’t take our chances.

"There’s no doubt Lancing, with the facilities and the massive budget they have, makes them a great side - however I thought all the officials were poor during the game and we didn’t get the rub of the green on anything. We must now bounce back in our trip to Lingfield on Wednesday night."

Pagham: Matthews, da Costa Searle, Clarke, Geoghegan, Jelley, Heryet (C Tilley), Barnes (Howard) , Franzen-Jones (Miller), Chalmers, Funnell. Sub not used: Carroll, Slaughter.