With various unprintable quotes from fans still ringing in my ears, I watched Pagham lose by the same score-line for the second successive match. A welcome delivery of sand from Hawthorn Builders ensured that the pitch passed inspection to allow the game to go ahead, and Gary Block had the luxury of a nearly full squad to pick from. None of this seemed to matter in a game dominated by the visitors. With Wealden boasting the prolific Wes Tate and Tobi Hutchinson up front, it was going to be a test for the Pagham defence. The visitors went close as early as the second minute, testing Wes Hallett on his return to the Pagham goal. An early blow for Pagham was the loss of influential skipper Sean Towers. Unable to continue following a scything tackle on him, Towers left the pitch to be replaced by Chris Heller. Wealden were simply quicker to the loose ball in the early exchanges, and it was inevitable when the scored the first goal. A 20th minute free-kick was pinged into the Lions’ area, and Hutchinson was on hand to head home. A couple of minutes afterwards the lead was doubled. Hutchinson raced into the area and smacked the ball against the post. Unfortunately for Hallett, Wes Tate was on hand to strike home the rebound. Pagham then temporarily woke up a little, with Calum Britton looking lively on the wing. He was instrumental in Pagham’s opener. Charging into the Wealden area, he was cynically bought down by Wealden ‘keeper Simon Davey. With the crowd expecting a red card for Davey, referee Mr Smith chose instead to book him prior to awarding the penalty. Up stepped Britton to score his thirteenth of the season. Back came Wealden, forcing a string of saves from Hallett before the half time whistle gave some respite to the wounded pride of the Lions.

Wealden scored again within a minute of the restart. Hesitancy in Pagham’s back line allowed Peter Christolodou to hit a soft goal. Jordan Willis’ replacement by Brett Forden showed that Gary felt there was still something to be taken from this game. The burly Forden did cause consternation in the Wealden defence almost from the off, but couldn’t turn this into goals. A sequence of free-kicks for Wealden also failed to yield further goals before the Lions went very close on a couple of occasions. Tim Lester was proving his worth on the right wing for Pagham, but even his pace couldn’t unlock the Wealden defensive wall. The main route to goal always seemed to be blocked, although to their credit, the Lions did keep plugging away. A change up front for the Lions saw the addition of Lewis Gibbs, hoping to add to his goal scored against Westfield the previous week. Doug Peach would go closest though, with a shot which Davey only just tipped over. The Wealden ‘keeper seemed to turn his ankle late in the game, and the cat-calls from the crowd seemed justified when he was able to continue following treatment. His time-wasting tactics had enraged certain elements of the fans, and they thought his injury was more than he made it out to be. The game finished with Wealden picking up three valuable points on a day where Pagham should have capitalised on the games postponed by their opponents for a promotion spot.