Chichester suffered the first setback in their defence of the County League title when they went down 1-0 to reigning Division Two champions Littlehampton on Tuesday night.

The Marigolds stole the points in the second minute of stoppage time, when giant defender Chris Hazell produced a diving header to score from a Paul Williams corner.

It was rough justice for Chichester, who looked the stronger side in the second-half following an initial 45 minutes where the two teams had cancelled each other out. The hosts went close to breaking the deadlock with an hour played when a piercing shot from Mark Wozniak took an awkward deflection. Then, on 72 minutes, Roger Moore broke clean through only to be denied by a superb tackle from Littlehampton defender Mark McCallum.

But having soaked up the pressure, Carl Stabler's side waited patiently for an opportunity and left it to the last possible moment to strike. "We came expecting to be given a hard time, what with Chichester being league champions," said Stabler afterwards, "I thought we had the better of the first-half - we were under the cosh for a bit after the break, but when our chance came we took it."

City boss Adie Girdler reflected: "We can't live on last year's championship - this is a different season. Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to the players. I thought Littlehampton were only an average team and I was disappointed with our first-half performance."

Report written by Chester Browton for the Chichester Observer

Chichester Team: Leaver, Osborne, Leigh, Hitchman, Jackson, N. Murfin, Cole, Wozniak, Hardwell, Moore, Tipper
Subs: Stephens, S. Murfin (both used)

Chichester Scorers: -

Attendance: 81