Burgess Hill Town and Haywards Heath Town starting to feel FA Cup fever

Burgess Hill Town and Haywards Heath Town are both through to the first qualifying round on August 31 after home wins in last Saturday’s preliminary round over Eastbourne Town and Deal Town respectively.

The HIllians will welcome Isthmian South East bedfellows AFC Croydon Athletic in the next round, while Haywards Heath will visit Isthmian Premier side Carshalton.

The Hillians won after Kieran Rowe and Martyn Box’s first-half goals proved too much for Town, who pulled it back to 2-1 in the second half.

Co-manager Gary Mansell said Hill deserved to go through – and he hoped it would help create early-season momentum. They have won two FA Cup games but lost their league opener 3-1 at Sevenoaks.

Mansell said: “In both cup games we felt we were the better team but made hard work of it. We should have scored more against Eastbourne and they made it tough second half.

"There were flashes of a good performance and we want to see that over 90 minutes now.

"At Sevenoaks we were pleased with the performance and didn’t feel we got what we deserved.

"We’ll look forward to playing Croydon in the next round of the FA Cup – they’ve been promoted to our league and will be dangerous.”

Before then, on Monday, the Hillians – now joint-managed by Mansell and Jay Lovett – face Eastbourne Town again, this time away from home and in the league.

Meanwhile Haywards Heath Town are pleased to be in the first qualifying round of the Cup after beating higher-division Deal 2-0 at the Hanbury.

Darius Goldsmith and Alex Plummer scored the goals and boss Naim Rouane said on X: “Always enjoy playing higher level opposition regardless of the result.

"There’s structure to the games which allows tactics and method to be implemented. Boys were brilliant.”

Heath visit Montpelier Villa tomorrow in the FA Vase and Roffey on Monday in the SCFL Premier.