On another freezing afternoon, it was the turn of Haywards Heath to try their luck against a rampant Eastbourne United. Fresh from booking themselves an RUR cup final place on Tuesday, United Started well, but it was obvious that Heath were here for the points. The mid Sussex team had slipped from second to third in the table, and were looking to regain the momentum that had kept them top two all season . With just 13 minutes on the clock, it was once again Charlie Ball who got on the end of a superb through pass from Grout to break the deadlock. That's 16 this season for Ball. United continued to press but were hampered somewhat when, following a magnificent full length save from Broadbent, who also fielded the resulting corner, there was a collision in the box, the linesman flagged for a Heath penalty. Alfie Headland was booked, even though he was nowhere near the incident, and a non plussed United were pegged back to 1-1 at the break.

The second half started brightly again, Max Thompson and Nathan Crabb joined the fray and injected even more pace into the United attack. There was a spell of one way traffic while United tried to regain the advantage, and a heart stopping moment for the 300 plus crowd when Heath broke through and Broadbent produced surely the save of the season, pushing up onto his crossbar, to keep it level. It was 85 minutes before United eventually broke down an excellent Heath defence, Mason Creese keeping a cool head as usual to make it 2-1.

It was injury time before the Heath defence, clearly tiring now, broke down again, Astle conceding a penalty which Thompson was only too happy to smash home. 3-1 it was, United move into 6th, just 3 points off the playoffs and looking forward to welcoming 4th placed Crowborough Athletic on Saturday. The big games just keep coming at the Oval Arena, but of course they're only big because Anthony Storeys youngsters seem to have timed their run just right. It's a 3.00 kickoff once again, and the forecast is for high winds!!