Gaskin treble fires Golds to within a point of promotion

Gaskin hit the first three in a 5-2 win against Broadbridge Heath to mean that leaders Golds now only need one point from their remaining six games to secure a return to County League Division 1.

The Littlehampton forward has now hit four in two games after a goal drought which started in December, and Bennett said: “I am really pleased for the lad. He’s got a reputation and hadn’t scored since back in December.

“On Tuesday (against Storrington) he came off the bench and scored and it looked like a weight had come off his shoulders. Now everything has started dropping for him again.

“I’ve been through it myself as a player and it’s not nice, I tried to protect him by putting him on the bench a couple of times, but people don’t see it like that. I am really pleased for him though as he’s a nice lad.”

Gaskin opened the scoring on 14 minutes as he headed over the goalkeeper from a David O’Callaghan free kick.

Five minutes before half-time the visitors levelled from the penalty spot as Dan Attwatertucked home after Ross McKay has pushed over an opponent in the box.

After some choice words from their manager at half-time, Golds were back ahead within seven minutes of the restart as Gaskin hit his second after a goalmouth scramble.

The frontman completed a perfect hat-trick 12 minutes later with a left-foot finish.

Heath did pull one back with 18 minutes left, but further Golds goals from Peter Beadle and O’Callaghan, who had been put out on the wing after picking up an injury, sealed the points.

On the league and promotion, Bennett added: “To be honest we just want to win it. There are so many rumours going around about promotion and relegation, that if we finish third we may not go up.

“So if we finish top there should be no excuses as to us not going up.”

LITTLEHAMPTON: J.Hendrick; Wiggans, McKay, Bates, M.Hand; Asare, O’Callaghan, Thompson, Beadle, M.Hendrick; Gaskin. Subs: Jarvis (Gaskin 65), D.Hand (Asare 65), Gray (M.Hendrick 75).