Brighton warmed up for their top of the table showdown with Holcombeians this Saturday by thrashing Middleton and Bognor 6-2 in the Kent and Sussex Regional League.

Mark Pacey gave the combined side a shock early lead, but skipper Carlo Missirian levelled for Brighton from a disputed penalty flick and then Richard Love took centre stage for the visitors.

Love scored the next four goals either side of half-time and Dan Hacking made it 6-1 before Brian Locke grabbed a late second for the hosts.

Influential Australian Terry Allen-Toohey, who has been missing for six weeks with a broken thumb, will return to the side for the big game on Saturday where Brighton have home advantage.

They currently trail the leaders by three points and Missirian admitted: "It's a game we cannot afford to lose."

Horsham staged an amazing comeback to beat bottom of the table Marden Russets 5-4.

Russets looked on course for their first win of the season when they led 4-2 with ten minutes to go. But Richard Lowe completed his hat-trick and Mark Ansell got the second of his two goals to complete the turnaround.

Crawley had to settle for a point from a 1-1 draw after encountering almost blanket defensive resistance at BBHC.

The hosts had all 11 men behind the ball for long periods of the match but Crawley's patient approach finally paid dividends early in the second half when a short corner was switched to the left and Rob Hallett thundered his shot past the helpless keeper.

BBHC only started to venture forward in the last five minutes and somewhat undeservedly equalised with two minutes left.