EP all set for Senior Cup clash with Brighton

The sides meet in the last four of the Sussex Senior Cup at Worthing’s Woodside Road ground and Di Paola has several players unavailable. Shaun Charles, James Rhodes and Josh Clack are injured, Nick Fogden and Jamie Atterwell are cup-tied and Lee Barnard is unavailable but Niall O’Hagan could be back.

Di Paola said: “We’ll go into it and give it our best shot. They’re a professional team who get coached to play the game the right way every day. But it’s just a single game.

“The first half will be massive and will dictate the rest of the game. We’ve just got to try to ride out the pressure as they came out very quickly against Lancing earlier in the competition and got some quick goals.

“I hope we don’t choke or bottle it and go out and play our football.

“The players are all really looking forward to it and might have thought about playing at The Amex in the final but that’s a million miles away at the moment.”

The winners will face Bognor or Hastings in the final.