Burgess Hill Town prepare for tough trip to high-flying Angels

Manager Ian Chapman had said after last Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Hendon that the Hillians are in danger of a relegation battle despite being 11 points above the drop zone.

“We are 11 points above the relegation places with 24 games to go. We are only nine points off the play-offs but we are nowhere near being able to look towards the top.

“We have told the players not to let the relegation places creep up on them, there’s no dressing it up.”

Chapman added: “We’ve got four league games between now and Christmas. I don’t want us to go back down after working so hard to win promotion last season.

“There will have to be changes if we don’t get results between now and Christmas.”

Speaking on Tuesday evening looking towards Saturday’s fixture the Hillians boss said: “ Tonbridge Angels are obviously a decent side and it is another very difficult game for us.

“It has been hard recently but this hasn’t been helped by the fact that this will be our seventh away game out of the last eight matches in both the league and cup.

“Whilst we haven’t been outstanding I also feel we haven’t been awful and probably haven’t had the rub of the green in certain fixtures. We also feel we have more to offer and we must find a way of doing that over the coming weeks.”

Hillians will be without skipper Darren Budd and defender Toby Pointing who are both serving one match suspensions whilst Phil Johnson is away.

Angels sit in second place in the table and go into the game full of confidence on the back of a five game unbeaten run. Their squad includes a former Hillian, winger Nicky Wheeler.

After all those away games, the Hillians are again on the road next week as they travel to Broadbridge Heath in the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday December 8.

Chapman will be pleased to be back in action at The Green Elephants Stadium for the following two Saturday’s (12th and 19th) when they host Canvey Island and Merstham respectively.

This Saturday the u21s are at home against Worthing in the SCFA Intermediate Cup (3pm).

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