Be braver – two words that helped Burges Hill Town win Isthmian play-off final

Hill had worked hard in the first half but were a little short of the form that had carried them to a third place finish in the Isthmian South East and got them past Margate in the semi-final.

Joint manager and director of football Mansell said: “The running was never in question. They ran in the first half, we just didn't play the football that had got us there in the first half.

“And that was the message at half-time to the boys – look, we've done something that's worked all season that we’ve been good and that we know has caused the opposition problems. We said ‘we've got to be braver’. And they did that.”

Mansell said he was ‘ecstatic’ they’d clinched promotion and happy they’d done it in dramatic style, winning the shootout 3-2 after a 1-1 draw.

"It's a whole season's work completed,” he said. "And if you can guarantee it, you'd choose to do it that way. It had everything – lots of drama, ups, downs, twists and turns.

"We got over the line and I think we deserved it.

Mansell was asked about young Alex Brewer – who had scored the club’s first goal of the season way back in August and scored Hill’s first penalty in the shootout. “He's been out on loan a lot in the season. He's gone away, worked hard and came back and he earned his place.”

See full coverage of the promotion triumph in the Mid Sussex Times – out now