Jay Lovett opens up on his ‘surprise’ sacking, who at Burgess Hill Town he’s grateful to – and what’s next

Lovett, his assistant Mat Bubb and goalkeeping coach Tom Betts were removed from the roles at the More Than Tyres Stadium last week as Burgess Hill Town’s new hierahcy decided they wanted a change.

It’s been a tough season for the Hillians, who are 16th and still have work to do to make sure they avoid the drop into the Southern Combination League./

But Lovett said he was certain he and his backroom team would have kept them up – while admitting they should have been higher up the table and had drawn too many games this term that should have ended in wins.

He is keen not to be out of football for too long and would like to work with Bubb and Betts again. And his name has already been linked with another managerial vacancy just up the road – at Haywards Heath, who sacked bosses Dale Hurley and Alex Walsh and coach Matt Evans on Sunday.

Lovett, 45, told sussexworld.co.uk and the Mid Sussex Times: “It was a surprise (to be sacked). But I’ve been in football long enough to know you shouldn’t be surprised at anything. You have to expect the unexpected.

"I had no indication it was going to happen. Results could have been better – we’d had a lot of draws that should have been wins, games where we were leading but didn’t go on to win. We’d had a nice win at Haywards Heath the night before and played some good football.

"We should have been higher in the league but the table is fact. But I 100 per cent felt we had enough to stay up and would have done. You put two or three wins together in this league and it makes all the difference.”

He was disappointed that despite becoming Hill boss in late 2019, Covid interruptions in his first two seasons there meant he only had one completed campaign – last season, when they were close to a play-off spot.

"Last season we had a shaky start then went 17 matches unbeaten. We finished on a high and only missed the play-offs by four points.”

Lovett said he’d enjoyed working with Bubb and Betts and they’d worked well together, and there was every chance they’d team up again.

"I want to get back into football – I don’t want to be away from it for too long,” he told us. “But it’s got to be right. I’m open to management or coaching.”

Lovett, who is from Brighton, served a wide range of clubs as a player, including Plymouth, Crawley, Brentford, Hereford, Gravesend and Norhtfleet, Farnborough, Lewes, Eastbourne Borough and Met Police – and played until he was 40.

In the years since, in coaching roles, he has worked for Eastbourne Borough, Lewes and South Park as well as Burgess Hill.

He said he was keen to thank everyone who’d supported him at Burgess Hill – from the likes of club chiefs John Rattle and Kevin Newell, to the many players who’d played under him – and the club’s ‘outstanding’ fans.

"Genuinely, you don’t get many clubs in non-league with fans who go home and away in such numbers and make such a noise,” Lovett said.

"They get fully behind the team through thick and thin and create such an atmosphere – they are a real asset to the club.”

Lovett tweeted on Friday, saying: “Thank you to everyone who played for me at Burgess Hill Town FC, Thanks to Kevin and John and all my staff for sticking by me. Massive thank you to all the fans. The atmosphere you create is incredible. What's next, who knows. But I'll be back.”

Hill’s U18s manager Gary Mansell and Adie Clayton took the the Hillians team for Saturday’s home game with Sevenoaks, which they lost 3-1, and are set to stay in charge for Tuesday’s visit to Hythe. But the club says it has been ‘inundated’ with applications for the manager’s job.