Last gasp Rose rescues point

Rose volleyed home with literally the last kick of the game to prevent their third-bottom hosts from dragging them into a possible relegation battle.

The point maintains United's relatively comfortable cushion over the strugglers and a couple of good results should see them out of trouble.

Joint manager Andy Laskey said: "We were sluggish and the 10 outfield players under-achieved. I was relieved to get a point in the end because we didn't play very well really. They are not a good side but they probably had slightly more of the pressure in the final third. To be honest I thought it had 0-0 written all over it."

A largely dour game came to life in the final few minutes. Pagham took the lead five minutes from time when a deep corner was nodded back into the goalmouth where the unmarked Woolston headed past Rob Wiley.

Sidley belatedly roused themselves but it looked as if it would be too little, too late until Wes Tate burst down the left, cut the ball back to Jordan Wood whose shot-on-the-turn ricocheted into Rose's path and the Blues' leading scorer fired into the top corner from the edge of the box.

The Blues, depleted by a couple of late injury withdrawals, had actually started fairly vibrantly in comparison to their overall performance but that early impetus quickly fizzled out.

Brad Poole, playing for the first time since the second game of the season, had an effort hacked off the line and debutant Craig Ottley saw a free kick well saved. Wiley pulled off three fine stops of his own and a point apiece was probably about right on the day.

Sidley are on their travels again on Saturday February 14 with a long distance trip to Sidlesham.