Battle for survival isn’t over yet for Burgess Hill Town and Haywards Heath Town
and live on Freeview channel 276
Both need wins to scramble away from the relegation zone in the Isthmian south east division – but they’re finding them hard to come by.
Burgess Hill were beaten at home in a crazy clash with Chatham in which the visiting goalkeeper scored then was sent off – along with one other player from each team.
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Hide AdChatham keeper Nathan Harvey scored with a long punt in the second half, which proved the only goal of the game. He then got sent off for a scuffle with Hill’s Dan Perry.
Chatham, who’d had Dean Beckwith sent off in the first half, held out with nine players. Hill then had sub Hayden Skerry sent off shortly after coming on.
Hillians boss Lewis Taylor said: “It’s disappointing, the way we lost. That was a freak goal.
"It’s frustrating but I take a lot of positives. We dominated the game. The boys delivered the game plan to a tee. We caused them all sorts of problems. We could have been a bit better in set-pieces… but if we keep that bar where it is now and keep delivering, we’ll be safe.”
One bit of good news for the Hillians was the attendance.
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Hide AdOn Non League Day, they attracted a crowd of 847 – their highest league attendance for 18 years.
It all leaves them just a point in front of the top relegation play-off place with five games left.
And new boss Taylor, who has taken over following Matt Longhurst’s brief reign at the More Than Tyres Stadium, will want his troops to give themselves a bit of breathing space with a result at Cray Valley PM this Saturday.
Haywards Heath’s position is even more serious.
They sit 18th, in the bottom of the two play-off spots, after seeing their hopes of a miraculous win away to leaders Ramsgate snatched away in the dying minutes.
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Hide AdGoals by Michael Uwezu, Conrad Honore and Dean Gunner had given the Blues a 3-1 lead but two goals in the final couple of minutes made it 3-3.
The games are running out for Heath and next up they host sixth-placed Sheppey this Saturday.