Painter proud of his battling Broadbridge Heath's derby win

A second-half Jake Holmes goal gave Heath a 1-0 victory over their title-chasing neighbours after a heroic spell of saves from goalkeeper Michael Chester.

Painter said: “I could not be more pleased and am still coming to terms with the fact.

“They have lost three games all season, two to Eastbourne Town and one to us, that speaks volumes.

“I have said before that on our day we can beat anybody in the league and I think we have proven it now in terms of sides we have beat this season.

“I am so proud of the lads. In terms of budget we are reams apart, I thought we were brilliant all over the park with some youngsters and local lads out there.

“I think we put a full effort into every game, but for some reason, and I can’t put my finger on it, the lads seem not to get up for the so-called smaller teams, but we certainly raise our game against the top teams - I am over the moon.”

Painter singled out full-backs Adam Wicking and Jamie Robinson for praise as well as goalscorer Jake Holmes.

He added: “I thought to be fair to us, apart from the first 15 minutes of the second half, when Michael Chester saves us a little but, it was pretty even.

“The first half was fairly even and we had two great chances from free headers early on. I was missing five and four of them would have started, but from the players that came in nobody let us down - they did what we asked them to do, to the letter.

“A good side like Horsham is always going to create chances, but I though we defended very well and in numbers at times.

“The first half was even and in the second half and had a few chances for the first ten minutes or so.

“But if you look at their chances, they came from our mistakes; us giving away cheap free-kicks and possession that they could fire back into the box.

“If we had cut them out then their opportunities to get the ball into our box don’t happen.

“Jake Holmes is sometimes on the periphery, but give him a chance and he does not miss them, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to be on the end of that pass from Scotty Weller

“We had two young full-backs and Adam Wicking had a great game. I said afterwards he wouldn’t play against better wingers than that at this level.

“He’d be the first to admit he has not been playing too well and been a bit short of confidence, but if that’s the level he can play at and maintain, he can easily play in county one.

“Jamie Robinson had a great game, he does not want to play left-back and sees himself further forwards, but is slowly coming around to the idea of being there.”

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