Burgess Hill boss Chapman heaps praise on squad

Burgess Hill win at Aldershot. Pictures by Ian Morsman - Aldershot Town FC

Dan Perry’s 33rd minute strike saw the Hillians reach the 2nd Round Proper for the first time in the Club’s History and they will now face another Conference Side, Dartford, who knocked out the Hillians in this seasons FA Cup in October.

Chapman said “It was a great victory and I really can’t praise the whole squad enough, it’s not just the starting XI. It shows the importance of having numbers”.

“It was really good afterwards to see our supporters buzzing and it just showed how far this Club has moved on”.

Aldershot Manager Andy Scott said after the game that they had prepared for the tie like any other game and he had watched the Hillians beat Chipstead away last week. Chapman had also done his homework on the hosts.

“I saw them earlier in the season and we have had people watching them for us but if we tried to do too much about them, it could frighten the life out of the boys. We stuck to our game plan and tried to play our own game”.

After the draw on Monday for the next round, Chapman said on facing the Darts for a second time this season “Again it’s another really difficult tie. Dartford are a nice Club who really looked after us when we played them at their place”.

“I’m pleased to be at home but they beat us fair and square last time so we know we must be at our best and they must be really poor for us even to have a chance”.

Chapman’s men have now knocked out three sides from higher divisions in Chesham United, Leatherhead and Aldershot whilst also defeating Aveley and Folkestine who are at the same level.

Dartford only entered the competition in the last round and defeated Solihull Moors 2-0.

The game will be played on Saturday 10th January and the Hillians will be hoping to get a big crowd at the ground to cheer the team on against a side three divisions above.

Hillians were due to return to league action last night with Whyteleafe visiting the Green Elephants Stadium and Chapman added “We now need to focus on getting a positive result on Wednesday against a tough Whyteleafe side”.

Following that game the Hillians then take on Carshalton on Saturday (20th) at home kicking off at 3pm.