Burgess Hill Town boss Lovett rues mistakes in surprise defeat

Calvin Poku hit four goals for Isthmian South East’s bottom club. Tom Chalaye reduced the deficit with ten minutes to go but Steve Carvell restored the host’s advantage.

Lewis Taylor added the Hillians’ second of the afternoon with six minutes remaining.

The surprise defeat leaves Hill tenth with 25 points from 18 games.

Lovett said: “I’m very disappointed in Saturday’s result - as are all the players.

“We started off well and arguably should have got a goal from that period. But it wasn’t to be and in the end turned upside down and not in our favour.

“We conceded too many of our own mistakes and left ourselves too much to do to get back into the game.

“It’s a real shame as we were coming off the back of two very good performances against Ashford and Hythe.

“We are finding our feet in terms of consistency. When we get that, we will find ourselves in a much better place.”

Hill controlled the opening 20 minutes. Chalaye and Lewis Finney both had glorious chances but couldn’t find the back of the net.

And the Hillians were left to rue these misses as they found themselves 2-0 down at the break.

Keeper Taylor Seymour was beaten to a long ball by Poku. The forward headed past the stopper and blasted into an unguarded net.

Poku then poked home from close-range on 44 minutes after Chaka Barnett’s effort had rattled the bar.

The striker completed his hat-trick on 65 minutes before adding his fourth four minutes later.

Chalaye’s fine volley on reduced the arrears. But Sports restored their advantage two minutes later.

Seymour’s clearance landed at the feet of Carvell, who rolled into the empty net.

Taylor’s half-volley on 84 minutes rounded off the scoring.

Hill welcome fourth-placed Haywards Heath Town on Monday, December 27 in the Mid Sussex derby.

Lovett said: “We all know we will need to be back to ‘full guns blazing’ and we will need to workvery hard like we have done in previous games.

“It will be a good game.”