Brighton and Hove endured a nervous wait before discovering they had avoided relegation from South Premier division one.

Andrew Acott scored twice in a 2-2 draw with fellow strugglers Oxford Hawks which left both teams in limbo with the possibility of four teams going down from the division.

However, news of Purley's defeat to Spencer meant Brighton were safe.

Skipper Luke Williams said: "Both teams were frustrated with the result. There were no sighs of relief or jumping for joy at the end, it was as if both had been relegated.

"About half an hour later one of our members heard Lewes had lost to Ashford, which was not good news, but five minutes later we heard Purley had lost which meant we were safe.

"It was very important for us to stay up this year. Losing (goalscorers) Craig Carolan and Sam Rose from last season was hard and it took players a long time to realise there are other ways of winning games.

"At the beginning of the season our problem was scoring goals.

"Hopefully we can attract some attacking players now although the team we have got showed in the second half of the season they can cope at this level."

Matthew Rickson scored for Lewes as they lost 3-1 to Ashford.

Runners-up Chichester finished with a 2-1 win at Oxford University thanks to goals from Jack Lerwill and Richard Blakesley.

l Horsham Ladies go into their final game of the season this weekend needing a victory to avoid a relegation play-off.

Horsham drew 1-1 with Exe on Saturday but slipped back into the bottom three in the Women's National South Division as rivals Firebrands beat Maidstone.

The bottom two go down automatically and the team third from bottom faces a play-off to stay up.

Horsham finish at home to Sevenoaks, Firebrands face already relegated Woking while Maidstone, who are the other team in trouble, entertain champions Staines.

Erica Rogers scored from a short corner in the last minute to salvage a point on Saturday.