Burgess Hill Town boss Simon Wormull: 'It's been a good Christmas'

Burgess Hill Town boss Simon Wormull has praised his players for their effort over the festive period.
Gary Elphick celebrates his goal against Lewes. Picture by Angela BrinkhurstGary Elphick celebrates his goal against Lewes. Picture by Angela Brinkhurst
Gary Elphick celebrates his goal against Lewes. Picture by Angela Brinkhurst

Goals from Gary Elphick, Ben Pope and Pat Harding saw the Hillians beat Lewes 3-0 on New Year's Day to follow up their 2-1 win against Worthing on Boxing Day.

Wormull said: "It’s been a good Christmas and a good start to the year for us and has set us up nicely.

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"We done our homework, myself and John had watched them a couple of times like we did Worthing and we knew how we wanted to play and changed the formation and tweaked it a little."

The former Lewes man was also pleased with how his side dominated the Rooks in the 3-0 win.

He said: “I said to the guys before the game we needed to kill the crowd and kill the game. Playing for Lewes I knew what it was like, once they get their game on the crowd make it very difficult and we did that first half perfectly.

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"Then I just said to them ‘now we have to implement ourselves and put our stamp on the game’. They are doing it so well. The effort the boys are putting in is outstanding.

"As a semi-pro footballer over the Christmas period to look after yourself is a sacrifice in itself and you could tell they have done that and you can see we have got our rewards for that by picking up the six points.

"For me we totally deserved yesterday. We scored three goals, we had three disallowed and I think we dominated, especially the second half.

"I think it’s a bit of disrespect to my boys to say Lewes played badly, I don’t think we allowed them to play well.

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"We worked tirelessly to make sure we stopped them from playing. For the boys that’s the biggest testament I can give to them."

Going back to the Worthing game, Wormull said: "I had been to watch Worthing at Bognor the week before. We decided to set up ourselves differently and obviously we played two games in the FA Trophy against them and had done well but not come away with the result we wanted.

"We knew what we needed to do. Even when we went 1-0 down I didn’t feel like we were never going to have a chance and when we went 2-1 up we were really comfortable.

"It’s great because they are two top five teams and we have shown at Dorking we can get a result, we beat Haringey now Worthing and Lewes, it’s great for the belief of the players that they can do it."

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Other results also went the Hillians way over the festive break and they are now on 23 points and only in the bottom three on goal difference.

Wormull said: "In previous weeks where we have won, everyone else wins. You kind of think we have to keep winning to stay in touch.

"We said we wanted to be in touch around Christmas and be in a position to get out of the bottom three. Now we have got ourselves to that it’s more hard work to make sure we stay out of it now.