Painter praises '˜makeshift defence' after Broadbridge Heath beat Wick

He had glowing words to describe the way his team stepped up to the challenge.

The Bears gained a 3-0 lead with goals by Jake Holmes, Ollie Moore and Tim Martin.

Wick did pull back a late consolation goal from the penalty spot, put away by Robert Hutchins.

Reserves player Chris Copestake made his first team debut at left-back after Jamie Robinson pulled out with illness.

Joe Holvey, who is normally a full-back, switched to centre-back and right-back Ross Swaine played despite not having played much football recently.

Painter revealed: “It was a convincing win as we had six players unavailable and had a makeshift back-four.

“Marlon Maxwell, Andy Howard, Rob Godfrey and Scott Weller were all missing, and Piers McDermott had to go off injured at half-time.

“I was pleased with the whole back-four. Chris, Joe and Ross all played really well.

“We were a little bit unlucky to concede a penalty - we very much deserved to keep a clean sheet.

“(Goalkeeper) Michael Chester didn’t have to make a save all night except for the penalty. We fluffed our lines a bit at the end.”

Painter was happy with attacking midfielder Ollie Moore who scored their second goal on 50 minutes.

He added: “Ollie did very well and it was good to see him score, after being sidelined for much of the season having fractured a cheekbone playing in pre-season.”

Heath made a perfect start with a goal after five minutes scored with a stooping header by Holmes.

They then went 2-0 up five minutes into the second half when Moore stabbed home the ball from a long free-kick.

Holmes turned provider half-way through the second half when he put Martin through to score.

Wick replied in the last few minutes from the end when Hutchins netted a spot-kick after Moore brought an opponent down in the area.

Painter added: “We’ve had some indifferent performances, but I think we’ve turned the corner.

“It’s just consistency which has been a problem - if we could put out our best 11 each week we would be a lot higher up the league.”

Heath: M.Chester, Swaine, Copestake (Balfour 80), Holvey, S.Chester, McDermott (Martin 46), Moore, Findlay, Holmes (McNab 75), Wright, Sultan.

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