Midhurst make their point - and are sorry to hear final whistle

Midhurst fancied their chances against a side only one place above them in the league although having ten more points – but in the end they were content to come from two down to settle for a point.

Manager Trevor Waller had to make changes to stiffen the team and he brought in Sam Sawyer and Chris Attree, who had previously played for Dorking.

Midhurst’s regular goalkeeper, Paul Williamson, has sustained a knee injury and has a suspension so will be unavailable for several weeks. But Waller has brought in Guy Souch from East Preston as cover.

Play started at a furious pace and the Midhurst fans had their hopes of a goal raised several times, but the visitors’ central defence of Nathan De Costa, Scott Banfield and Josh Sutcliffe were playing well.

Fifteen minutes had passed when Jamie McCloud took a free-kick which evaded the Midhurst keeper.

Sean Dummer teamed up well with new forward Attree but they could not break down the stubborn East Preston defence.

On the half-hour came the second goal for the visitors. A tackle in the area caused the referee to indicate a penalty and Danny Hand stepped up to make it 2-0.

Midhurst were finding East Preston hard to break down and it looked as if the visitors’ tactics in the second half would be to defend in numbers.

Souch was being tested with long-range shots but he dealt well with these.

With 15 minutes left Lewis Hyde netted for Midhurst to give the home fans new hope.

Three visiting players were booked, all conceding free-kicks which were dealt with by the keeper. The last ten minutes brought plenty of excitement and Liam Dreckman scored the best goal of the afternoon to save a point for the home team.

Just as Midhurst started to wonder whether they might even go on and win it, the 90 minutes were up.

However Midhurst have another chance of victory this Saturday (2pm) when they are at home to Steyning, who are two places below them in the table.

MIDHURST: Souch, Hatch, O’Leary, Taylor, Farr, Clayton, Lewis Hyde, Dummer, Attree, Sheldrick, May, Dreckman, Williams.

TED DUMMER