Sittingbourne extended their unbeaten League run to six matches after a battling 1-1 at Burgess Hill Town.
It was a frustrating afternoon for Ryan Maxwell’s side and in fairness it was a frustrating game to watch as it quickly became a defensive midfield battle with the Brickies creating more of the clear-cut chances created.
Indeed, even the home goal came from a series of extremely fortunate ricochets before a very cool finish from Rob O’Toole cancelled out Ayman El-Moghaebel’s flying header from just five minutes earlier.
Ayman could have opened the scoring earlier than he did as Bagasan Graham’s huge throw was helped on at the near post and Ayman’s header flew over the bar perhaps when he had a bit more time than the Brickies no 11 realised, he had.
He though certainly got his targeting scanner right on 18 minutes. Dsean Theobalds played a lovely ball for Manny Osei-Owusu to run onto. His pinpoint cross to the back post was met by a flying Ayman who planted his header beyond the despairing dive of home keeper James Shaw.
The visitors lead lasted only a matter of minutes as O’Toole levelled – and it was tough on the Brickies as three fine tackles went in on forwards in the box and on each occasion the ball fell to a green shirt before O’Toole threaded the ball through the crowd and into the bottom corner giving Bobby Mason no chance.
The game really was a tactical battle with Joe Tyrie and Chris Arthur outstanding for the Brickies at the heart of the visitor’s defence, despite Tyrie feeling at fault for the home side’s goal. If he was, it was outstanding the way he recovered to perform so well against two very good veteran strikers at this level.
The second half was even tighter than the first as Mason was forced into his only save from Lewis Finney’s header whilst at the other end, Shaw got very lucky when racing from his box only for his headed clearance fall straight to Ayman, who seemed to be “impeded” before being able to get the shot away and the chance was gone.
The Brickies did force a couple of late corners but failed to threaten Shaw’s goal and so points were shared. Eight points from the first four away games is a good return as the Brickies stay second in the table as they prepare next for a trip to Bognor next weekend to face third placed Chichester City at their temporary home!
BURGESS HILL TOWN – Shaw Ward, Box, Taylor (Daniels-Yeoman), Allen, Spinks, O’Toole (Powell), Rowe, Finney (Budd), Pamment, Jammeh
Subs – D’Arienzo, Perry
SITTINGBOURNE – Mason, Jones, Graham, Woodward (Piorkowski), Tyrie, Arthur, Osei-Owusu (Splatt), Theobalds, Harris, Fischer (Nolan-Samuel), Ayman
Subs – Singh, Balarade
REFEREE – Mr Wright