Happy Hillians in good shape

Burgess Hill Town 1

by Dave Bradbury

Burgess Hill go into the last three months of the season in good shape for a play-off spot and with two cup quarter finals on the horizon.

They booked the second of those cup dates with a 1-0 revenge win in the Sussex Senior cup at fellow Ryman South club Hastings on Monday.

That came little more than 48 hours after they laid their recent Crawley Down Gatwick jinx to rest with a 4-1 away win in the league.

After losing 5-0 both home and away to Down the season before last, they again crashed 5-0 away and lost 3-0 at home last season. This time they followed up a 1-1 home draw with an excellent away win.

Hillians felt they were unlucky to go down 3-2 at Hastings in the league in the last game of 2013 and on Monday at the Pilot Field gained sweet revenge with a well deserved victory.

That made it nine wins in the last 10 games and a disappointing first game in charge for Hastings legend Terry White after the departure of John Maggs.

Both sides fielded strong teams although Hillians were missing skipper Darren Budd as Toby Pointing, Spencer Slaughter and Greg Luer came in for Neil Watts, Paul Armstrong and Curtis Gayler.

The hosts started brightly but did not seriously threaten Alan Mansfield’s goal until midway through the half whenTim Vickers, who hit the last minute winner a month ago, headed a great chance straight at the Hillians keeper.

Both sides more or less cancelled out each other in the first half but Hillians made a change at the break and came out in positive mood on the restart.

Danny Curd, who picked up a booking, was replaced by Armstrong and the reshuffle seemed to have a positive effect as Luer crossed for Miller

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