Defeated by Hendon – but Littlehampton Town have plenty more fight in them yet

In front of a big New Year’s Day crowd at Bognor they produced a magical performance and came away with a promising 4-1 victory. The massed away posse celebrated wildly with the players and management.

It put the club squarely into mid-table with the promise of upward progression. Fast forward two months and the Sportsfield outfit have regressed, picking up just four points from 21.

The run saw them fall to one place above the relegation places – then on Saturday Hendon, one place below, visited for a true ‘six-pointer’. And the ‘Greens’ of North London held on for a 2-1 victory.

The ground was bathed in sunshine under blue skies and mild temperatures. The pitch looked in good nick considering recent rain. Nerves were apparent as both teams emerged from the changing room.

A scrappy game burst into life on 13 minutes when Jadyn Dundas tried his luck from long range. His shot bobbled past Billy Collins and into the corner of the net.

Littlehampton roared back into the game. A long ball found Gabriel Robinson who rounded the keeper but couldn’t quite get his shot away.

On 28 minutes the Golds forced two quick corners. The second produced a melee where Owen Spicer was left unmarked to bundle home at the back post. The half ended with both teams guilty of misplaced passes but at 1-1 it was all to play for.

Hendon were much the better team early in the second half. On 54 minutes William Oduwa skilfully brought the ball down but shot over the bar.

Minutes later all away connections were celebrating. Florian Ada got on the end of a flick-on to prod home to give them a 2-1 lead.

From then on the hosts were huffing and puffing, pumping long balls forward. Despite six minutes of injury time and Collins up in the box for the final corner. Hendon held firm for an important three points.

Golds joint boss Mitch Hand said: “Obviously we are frustrated with this loss. We built momentum late in the first half but were a little timid in the second half. Hendon played with less fear.”

Hand admitted to missing his joint manager George Gaskin on the field: “He has a broken foot, and we are missing his presence. He is the sort of player who might have nicked a late goal today.”

He is defiant about the season’s end: “With ten matches still to play this loss won’t define us. This league throws up plenty of unexpected results and we could go to high-flying Portchester on Saturday and get ourselves up and running. We probably need four or five wins stay in this league.”

Littlehampton go into the business end of season with a lot of hard work in front of them. Their proud Isthmian spell is under real threat, and it would be a huge shame if they were slip back into the SCFL.

Hand and Gaskin have proved themselves to be outstanding young managers, but they need to find something extra over the next two months. Good luck to all connections.

Colin Bowman is following Sussex non-league sides at steps two, three and four all season. Read more of his pieces at sussexworld.co.uk/sport