Hawks held as Rocks refuse to crumble in scrappy clash

The hosts had to settle for a point with their Vanarama National South rivals in a hard-fought Boxing Day match at Westleigh Park.

Conditions were gloomy with wind and rain, while chances were few and far between as both teams cancelled each other out.

‘It was disappointing we weren’t able to make the most of our win at Eastbourne with another three points,’ said Hawks boss Bradbury.

‘The game was very bitty and the pitch was very difficult.

‘That made it impossible to get the ball down and play.

‘It was a bit of a slugfest and we couldn’t quite get the ball in the net.

‘But for their goalkeeper we could have had a couple of goals.

‘Bognor should have gone down to 10 men after Matt Tubbs was brought down by their last defender.

‘That is a big decision that went against us.

‘Bognor though are scrapping for their lives and they showed that.

‘It is another point which keeps us going on a good run.’

The home side made two changes with Bradley Tarbuck and Matt Tubbs coming into the starting line-up.

Dan Strugnell was ruled out by injury and Andreas Robinson dropped to the subs bench.

The Rocks included former Hawks duo Ben Swallow and Harvey Whyte.

Tubbs had the first effort on target after eight minutes with an acrobatic volley straight at Bognor keeper Dan Lincoln.

Theo Lewis went within inches of connecting with a Tubbs ball.

Then on 17 minutes it took a superb one-handed reaction save from Lincoln to keep out a Tubbs header.

In a quick counter-attack substitute Ibra Sekajja almost gave the visitors a surprise lead.

The striker, looking offside, ran on and hammered his drive narrowly past the far post.

In a dramatic opening to the second half the home side thought they had a penalty when Tubbs was felled as he burst into the area.

Instead the referee awarded a free-kick on the edge of the area which proved fruitless.

Bognor were doing their equal share of attacking as conditions deteriorated.

Ryan Woodford had to make a brave block to deflect a fiercely struck Sekajja shot over the top.

As the game approached the final 10 minutes the Hawks pushed on and substitute Robinson flashed a free-kick narrowly past the post in stoppage time.

Hawks: Young, Williams, Woodford, Harris, Fogden, Lewis, Prior, Tubbs, Tarbuck, Carter, Rose. Subs: Stock, Molyneaux, Robinson, Hayter, Widdrington

Bognor: Lincoln, Davies, Campbell, Tuck, El-Abd, Field, Whyte, Block, Muitt, Wood, Swallow. Subs: Sekajja, Beck, Lea, Scutt, Boughton