The consolation for Brighton & Hove's women as they slipped to a fourth successive defeat in the South East premier division was their much improved display in going down narrowly to promotion chasing Knole Park on Saturday.

Brighton fought back from going behind early on and equalised through Renee Ojikutu after 25 minutes. But they were only level for a short period as Knole Park, two points behind Guildford at the top of the table, landed the decisive blow with a second open play goal four minutes later.

"We worked super hard the whole of the second half and were looking quite dangerous," said captain Bara Owen. "But we didn't manage to get goals even though we came close, very close, a couple of times. It was one of our best played games this half of the season."

Brighton face a long half-term break before returning to face local rivals Horsham on March 1.

MoM: Abbie, who stepped into goal from the 3s.
DoD: Sophie, who was very late.

Hailsham 2s 0
BHHC 3s 4

Alex Smart reports: "It was an eventful Saturday for the W3s with a change of time and location for the away fixture vs Hailsham. Diva got so confused, she tried to drive me, Amanda and Ange to her office in Crawley. Jo was even more confused and rocked up at Blatch for a home game.

The Tesla vs Audi TT race to Bede’s School was on. Shelley, Beth and Sumi arrived with time to spare and enjoyed a walk round the school zoo. Zoe then decided to eat her banana outside the animal cages which didn’t go down well with the local inhabitants.

Once we’d found the right location and gone for a trip to the one loo, we stood around awkwardly for 10 minutes thinking that Diva might have fallen in – either into the loo or the swimming pool next door. Turns out she had walked back to the pitch ages ago and we were the idiots for standing outside a loo that had a small child in it.

Due to a tight pitch slot, there was a lack of warm-up space beyond the car park so we went for a run round parked cars which coincided with the opposition doing the same, turning into an awkward Park Run type group situation.

Downton Abbey (new nickname thanks to Beth P’s spelling of her name) had a call up to the 1s and Emily K stepped up for some 3s action. She casually cleared any balls that dared to enter her D and worked well with the defensive line of Lizzy, Diva, Amanda, Zoe and Aisha. The defence easily picked balls that made their way through midfield and Diva’s aerials are looking better each week.

The unwatered water based pitch was a bit like playing hockey on a trampoline and countless mistrapped balls kept the game interesting. It turns out that Sumi can’t actually see the ball as she wears glasses until we get on the pitch but hasn’t got round to getting contacts. This didn’t stop her from some lovely carrying through screen although she didn’t really appreciate the amount of running the role requires. Gemma was sporting a fabulous Gen Z high pony tail that made her extra sprightly on the pitch and Emily T intercepted lots of balls.

Beth returned to the team with a cryptic number on her back that was so illegible, at one point the opposition called to mark the player “with the number we can’t read”. With acres of space on the wings, Beth and Sorrel enjoyed some lovely runs and strong attacking play. Jo was reminded by the opposition that she hit one of their players in the privates when we last played. Not deterred, at one point she had a cracking shot, straight into the GK’s personal area. Despite the padded protection, both teams took some time out to let her recover.

We were denied our first goal: Jo and Lizzy played an out and in on a penalty corner, saved on the first strike but smashed into the goal by Jo on the rebound. Apparently it came off a Hailsham stick and off the body of one of our players.

We had plenty of great chances in the D. Shelley was desperate to buy jugs of Prosecco and put all four goals away. The first was a skilful carry to the keeper, flicking the ball inside the left post. Our second was a lovely team effort, starting with a GK clearance from Emily K, working its way up the pitch with great passes and into Shelley in the D to finish. Shelley then stepped up for a penalty flick after the opposition received a ball to the body on the line. The icing on the cake was a penalty corner on the final whistle with a cracking strike from Jo to the left post, expertly deflected into the roof by... what’s her name... Shelley.

Half the team made it to the Hailsham pub for teas. One car went to check out another pub on the way. Strong navigation was rewarded with jacket potatoes with not one, not two, but three filling options! The choice was too hard, resulting in a smorgasboard on my plate of chilli, tuna mayo and cheese.

Massive thanks to supporters, Ange and Aisha’s Mum, to see us hold the top of the league by one point."

Other results

BHHC 2s 0 East Grinstead 2s 7
BHHC 4s 0 South Saxons 1s 2
Burgess Hill 2s 1 BHHC 5s 2
BHHC 6s 1 Lewes 3s 7
BHHC 7s 0 Horsham 5s 3
Lewes Legends 2 BHHC 8s 0