Burgess Hill Town boss Chapman confident after first two games

Burgess Hill Town manager Ian Chapman has seen enough from his side's first two games to be confident of a good season.
Ian ChapmanIan Chapman
Ian Chapman

Hillians kicked of the 2017/18 campaign with a 1-1 home draw with Needham Market on Saturday and followed that up on Monday with a goalless draw away at Kingstonian on Monday night.

And when asked if he had seen enough from his team in the first games he said: “Absolutely. I am really pleased. We will get better and better. There’s been a few personnel changes. I feel we stood up last night (Monday) and were counted.

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“I am pleased with what I have seen and on Saturday our fitness showed and the last 25 minutes we were excellent. We looked most likely to go and win the game.

“You look at last year Needham Market beat us 3-0 at home and Kingstonian beat 2-0 away from home so just from those two results we look like we are stronger. Loads of work to do still and with the injuries we need a couple more in, but I’m pleased with what I have seen in these first two games.”

But the two games so close together came at a price as captain Will Miles dislocated his knee in the second game.

Tony Garrod (calf strain), Lee Harding (back), Max Huxter (thigh strain) and Matt Nezval (ankle) also picked up knocks in the two games.

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Chapman said: “It’s a shame for Will, he’s been excellent in pre-season and was quality on Saturday and he was great on Monday before he had to come off.

“But fingers corssed it will only be a three-week injury rather than a long one.”

Miles will have to wait for the swelling to go down before he can have the knee scanned to see if there was any damage.

Hillians face Folkestone at home on Saturday (3pm kick- off).

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Chapman said: “It’s another difficult one. We will give the boys who started on Monday the night off on Tuesday, the subs and u23s were in. We will have a little bit of a body count to see where we are.

“The 23s have a friendly at Eastbourne Town tonight (Thursday) we have a couple we will look at there. We do need to get a few bodies in because we have picked up four or five injuries quite early.

“I don’t totally agree with playing Saturday and Monday on the first week of the season. I think it’s wrong.

“Kingstonian last night (Monday) lost a couple through injuries. It’s a big ask.”

Cheick Toure will captain the side in Miles’ absence.

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