Eastbourne Borough and Lancing win, Littlehampton and Burgess Hill lose – fixtures piling up for others

The fixtures are piling up for some, especially our four teams in the Isthmian premier – Bognor, Horsham, Hastings and Lewes – who all had matches postponed again. The Hastings and Lewes call-offs were late ones after morning pitch inspections had decreed the surfaces were still okay.

Hastings United issued a statement apologising to fans after the disappointment that the match referee would not let the game go ahead.

HUFC said: “The Club is very sorry for the cancellation of todays’ fixture but this was beyond our control. The Club Officials and Volunteers worked tirelessly to enable the fixture to go ahead with heat blowers on all night with our groundsman Simon working throughout the night and actually sleeping at the ground.

“Simon and Dane and John worked from early morning and were later joined by Pat and some volunteers in an effort to secure the fixture. At 10.00am an independent Referee inspection passed the pitch as playable and efforts continued with Pat, Steve and more volunteers to spread salt and grit to ensure the ground was safe for the fans.

“What disappointment then when the match official arrived at just before 2pm and declared the pitch unplayable in parts and despite efforts from both teams and officials the match Referee refused to sanction the playing of the game. Once again we apologise for the inconvenience to everyone concerned and hope you will understand that the Club made every effort possible to fulfil the fixture.”

Meanwhile Lewes players trained on the pitch – rather implying their game could have gone ahead. They tweeted: “The majority of the pitch is fine, the referee deemed a portion of it unplayable.”

In action that did go ahead, Eastbourne Borough beat Hungerford 3-1 thanks to goals by Charlie Walker, James Hammond and Leone Gravata. Lee Worgan saved a Hungerford but they did pull it back to 2-1 in the second half before Danny Bloor’s men made sure of a win that left them still eighth in the National South table.

In the Isthmian south east Littlehampton were involved in a 10-goal thriller at Sheppey but unfortunately let in seven of them – meaning goals from George Gaskin, Devon Fender and Lucas Pattenden were in vain. It was 5-1 in the 89th minute before both sides scored twice.

There was a defeat on the road too for Burgess Hill, who went down 4-1 at Ramsgate after Dan Perry had given them a first-half lead.

But Lancing got back to winning ways, winning 3-1 at home to Sevenoaks, with Tyrone Madhani, Marcel Powell and Modou Jammeh on the scoresheet.

The Lancers are up to 12th, with Burgess Hill 13th and Littlehampton eighth.

The games involving Chichester City, Haywards Heath, Three Bridges, East Grinstead and Whitehawk were all postponed. Three Bridges are still two matches from being halfway through the 38-match season – with only a little over three months of it to go.