Pagham can count themselves unlucky to have lost a match which was the archetypal “game of two halves”. With both Billy Chatfield and Jamie Angell out through injury, Sean Dobbs returned to the side and Nick Green stepped up from the subs bench to start the game. On the bench making his debut in Pagham colours was new signing Lee Bradshaw. Within the first two minutes Pagham could have gone ahead as Wimble combined with Britton to challenge Ben O’Connor in the Mullets goal. A period of frantic play followed but it wasn’t until the quarter hour that anything meaningful transpired. Nick Green’s shot wide signalled possibly another blank night for the Lions. Arundel took the lead when the ball was struck in from a corner, confused everybody and eventually the goal was awarded to Josh Sutcliffe. With the game threatening to degenerate into a series of free-kicks, and the normally prolific Scott Tipper looking out of sorts for Arundel, a Matt Huckett strike wide of the mark was the only further action of note prior to half time.

Arundel boss Richard Towers made a triple substitution at the start of the second half, perhaps to add some impetus to a tired looking Arundel side. However, it was the Lions who were looking the more positive. Rob Wimble went close with a shot over the bar, and within the hour Pagham saw another chance cleared off the line. Brett Forden then capitalised on Nick Green’s sublime cross in only to see his shot saved. Green then decided to have a shot himself when clean through only to see the ball go sailing over the bar. Gary Block chose to make a substitution with twenty minutes to go. Off came Ashley Hunter to be replaced by Michael Frangou. The new man added some pace to a rather stretched attacking force. The Lions equalised following some tremendous wing-work by diminutive ball-player Britton. His trickery allowed Brett Forden sight of goal and he made no mistake from the left hand side. In truth this was no more than Pagham deserved, having dominated the second half of the game. Pagham could have gone 2-1 up when Rob Wimble’s nimble footwork put Michael Frangou through on goal. Frangou’s overhead kick almost, but not quite, eluded the diving O’Connor. Kerry Hardwell came on to replace Nick Green for Pagham as the latter appeared to be carrying an injury. At this point there was only five minutes of normal time remaining, and it looked as if Pagham could settle for a point. Selsey referee Andrew Carter had other ideas. Scott Tipper went down in the area when colliding with Wes Hallett, and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Up stepped Tipper to extract his revenge, scoring his tenth league goal of the season. Worse was to follow for Pagham as skipper Sean Dobbs was booked for protesting too much following the penalty. The final whistle came as a relief to those watching yet another close result which went against the Lions.

Pagham; W.Hallett, C.Heller, A.Hunter, S.Dobbs, S.Towers, K.Urquhart, C.Britton, D.Peach, R.Wimble, B.Forden, N.Green; M.Frangou, K.Hardwell, T.Lester, R.McLelland, L.Bradshaw
Arundel; B.O’Connor, S.Towers, J.Sutcliffe, L.Walker, S.Hack, D.Walker, D.Towers, J.Wimbleton, S.Tipper, M.Huckett, A.Boxall, D.Hall, M.Axell, R.Grove.