Hastings United boss happy with Chippenham and Crawley Town tests

The Us will host National South side Chippenham – who they beat away from home in the FA Cup last season – in the second round of the FA Trophy on Saturday, November 19, after defeating Burgess Hill 4-2 in last Saturday’s first-round tie at The Pilot Field.

And United will host League Two Crawley Town in the second round of the Sussex Senior Cup on a date yet to be fixed.

They’re tough ties but Elphick says he and his players will relish both.

"I’d rather have cup ties against sides from higher divisions, I prefer them to ties against teams at your level or even lower divisions,” he told us.

"We often raise our game in these sort of ties, as we showed last season in the FA Cup.

"They’ll be nice breaks from the league campaign and both are at home so we’d expect good vocal crowds behind us for both.”

Elphick was pleased to see United beat one of his old sides, Burgess Hill, in the Trophy, Ben Pope got two, Alex Brefo scored a goal-of-the-season contender and Chinedu McKenzie netted his first for the club.

"We were in control but I was a bit annoyed we allowed them back to 2-1 and then 3-2,” Elphick said.

"We were great going forward and scored some nice goals. I was pleased for Chinedu getting his first – he is picking up nicely and will only get better over time.”

Midweek brought a 1-0 Isthmian premier defeat at Billericay, which Elphick said might have finished 0-0 on another day.

The defeat leaves Hastings eighth in the table and only three points off the play-off places ahead of tomorrow’s visit to fifth-placed Enfield.

Elphick said of the Billericay game: “It should have been 0-0 and that would have been a really good point against a team who’ll be right up there. "We didn’t react as I’d have liked after the goal in the second half but I can’t be too critical of the players. The defence and Louis Rogers in goal have generally been brilliant this season.”

Finn O’Mara has joined Cray Valley PM on a month’s loan but Elphick stressed the centre half was very much part of his plans.