Bognor Regis Town striker can spearhead Rocks' resurgence, says Blake

Goal-getter Gifford hit a hat-trick as Bognor Regis Town cruised past Steyning with a 6-1 win in the second round of the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday.

The Rocks looked in control for the majority of the tie and the victory will provide a confidence boost to Blake’s men after what has been a difficult start to the season.

Now Blake has asked his players to harness the confidence from the win into a tough run of games coming up, starting with Saturday's FA trophy third qualifying round clash at Sittingbourne.

Injuries have prevented the Nye Camp boss from fielding his strongest side this term and against Steyning he turned to a trio of U18 players. Rio Long, Toby Kingswell and Ashton Horstead were drafted into the squad and all three were given game time.

Blake also brought in Harry Clout on loan from Portsmouth and immediately handed him a debut.

Matt Burgess opened the scoring on 14 minutes before Gifford grabbed the first of his three two minutes later and then Lloyd Francis scored to make it 2-1 at the interval.

Haydon Vaughan, on loan from Aldershot Town, struck five minutes after the interval before Gifford hit home two more goals to make it 5-1 after 67 minutes. Jasper Mather came on after 68 minutes and within five minutes sealed the deal with a sixth strike for the visitors.

Speaking to Rocks Radio after the encounter, Blake said: "We did well, and I am are really pleased with our application in the game. It could have been a tough game to be fair but at 2-0 up we looked comfortable then gave them a bit of a leg up with their goal. We asked the players at half time to be brave in possession and to play our football and we did. I am really pleased with Giffs (Dan Gifford). It's difficult when you haven't scored that many goals but what we have seen against Steyning is the real Dan Gifford. He was clinical and he worked his socks off, like everybody did.

“We've come under criticism and rightly so and we have had questions asked of us so it was nice to see them happy in the changing room after the game. We have got bigger hurdles to come along the way but if we can apply ourselves and play the way we want to play, we can hurt teams and be a problem for teams.”

Addressing the impressive youngsters who came in to the frame fro the youth ranks, Blake added: “It was nice to blood some young lads -- Toby in the middle of the park was great, Rio came on at right back and was great and Ashton came on for little bit of a cameo which was good for him and obviously I thought the debut of Harry Clout was good and he looked a bright prospect.”