An injury to goalkeeper Nicky Maynard marred Eastbourne United’s rise back to the top of the County League.

Maynard suffered a groin injury in Saturday’s 3-2 win at East Grinstead and has been pulled out of the Sussex squad for Wednesday’s game against Middlesex.

Substitute keeper Gavin Richards hobbled through most of the second half after suffering a hernia problem but United won thanks to goals from Steve Morris, Lucas Mann and Simon Stevens.

Manager Brian Dennis said: “Nicky is going to have intensive treatment this week and until then we won’t know how long he will be out for but it could be a while.

“He has been outstanding for us and we might have to bring a keeper in on loan because Gavin needs an operation.”

Spirited Grinstead fought back through Simon Funnell’s penalty and a goal from midfielder Marc Pelling but Dennis felt his side did just enough.

“We felt we deserved to win but credit to East Grinstead. (New manager) Steve Johnson got a performance out of them and it was a good game to watch.”

Johnson said: “I was disappointed because I felt we deserved something from the game. The quality of the players we have has surprised me and I won’t need to bring in loads of new faces. All we need is a win to get some confidence and we can take it from there.”

Eastbourne took advantage of a surprise slip-up by Horsham YMCA, who were condemned to a 2-1 home defeat by St Francis Rangers when Ben Palmer scored from close range in the last minute.

Sam Jeremiah had put Saints ahead only for Paul Elliott to equalise but manager Danny Bryan felt his side deserved to win.

Bryan said: “We worked very hard from start to finish and made it difficult for them to play.

“At one stage we forced eight corners in a row and Phil Gault had a goal disallowed and in the second half we restricted them to two chances.”

“We have been on a poor run but we worked in training on closing the space down and making it difficult for the opposition. I would have been happy with a point but I think we deserved all three.”

The title race is as tight as ever with Wick up to third after an impressive 4-2 win at Shoreham. Julian Boniface and Colin Moss scored with headers either side of strikes from Steve Davies and Phil Turner. Darren Annis and Dean Smith replied for the Musselmen.

Marlon Maxwell’s late goal earned Three Bridges a 1-0 win at Worthing United which lifted them into fourth while East Preston pulled further away from the relegation zone after Lee Farrell (2) and Terry Dodd scored in a 3-0 home win over Lingfield.

Whitehawk are the form team after Joe Gatting’s hat-trick secured a 3-0 win over Pagham, their fifth in a row and took Gatting’s tally to 12 since he joined the club from Albion in December.

Chichester cannot be discounted from the title race either after they beat Ringmer 2-0 thanks to Charlie Marshall and an own goal.

The games at Hailsham and Redhill were both postponed.