Proud Loxwood boss Walsh felt they deserved something from home defeat to leaders Chichester City

Gicu Iordache put the visitors ahead just before the half-hour mark and Dave Herbert doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time.

But that was as good as it got for a recently free-scoring Chichester side, who have scored 63 goals in 22 league games.

The Magpies also found visiting goalkeeper Jordan Matthews in good form to keep them shut out at the other end, improving the leaders’ clean sheet total to 16 in all competition.

City extended their lead to five points with the win and Loxwood slipped second-from bottom, but Walsh said: “We definitely did ourselves justice. We wanted to try and win the game and be positive and set them a challenge. Maybe other teams would have sat back and we agreed we did not want that.

“For good parts of the game we did really well, but they had good pace in their front three which arguably won them the game.

“We kept it at 0-0 for a good 25 minutes and had a few good chances through Matt Penfold, Nik Myndhart and Ash Muntongerwa and looked the better side for parts of the game.

“They got their goal at a good time and the second just before half-time gave them a comfortable lead and they defended that well. I do genuinely believe we deserved something out of the game though and I am proud of the lads.”

Loxwood: Matthews, Penfold, French, Boiling, Courtney, Westlake, Cowan, Muntongerwa, Bennett, Myndhart, Macrth. Subs Poham, Swaine, Griffin.