Littlehampton Town relishing Sussex Cup semi - and ready for relegation battle

Those are the two achievements in the Marigolds’ sights after they reached their second successive Sussex Transport Senior Cup semi-final by seeing off Lancing 2-1 in their home quarter final on Tuesday night.

Their latest cup success – three seasons after they reached the FA Vase final at Wembley – comes as they face a fight to stay in the Isthmian south east division.

Mitch Hand and George Gaskin’s side are in the top relegation spot in the Isthmian south east division and they have 19 games left to avoid slipping back into the Southern Combination.

Hand told us they’d relish the cup semi-final and would love to reach May’s Amex Stadium final – and he vowed they’d be battling hard to get the eight league wins they believe they need to avoid relegation.

The cup semi-final draw will be broadcast on BBS Radio Sussex in the post-match section of tomorrow’s (Jan 11) sport show, with Eastbourne Borough, Horsham and Whitehawk or Brighton U21s the other semi-finalists.

Hand felt they deserved their last-eight win over the Lancers, in which veteran duo Scott Kirkwood and George Gaskin got the goals. It was revenge for Town’s 4-2 league loss at Lancing just six days earlier.

He told us: “We were brilliant – we really were. It was complete role reversal from New Year’s Day. On New Year’s Day we were beaten by the better side – they were so much better than us and we had to take that and move on.

"We got a chance for a bit of payback and revenge, for ourselves. We let ourselves down New Year’s Day but we were brilliant this time – we were hungier than them, we outbattled them. All over the pitch I thought we won our duels and we were well worth the win in my opinion.

"There was a penalty save, big blocks, brilliant defending, but we also could have scored a couple more goals.

"I know they had some complaints about the refereeing but they’re the ones who got the penalty so I don’t really understand that. I’ve never been one to bash referees myself so we’ll leave them to that.

"George popped up with the winner as he so often does – there’s life in the old dog yet! We’re going to need him if we’re going to do our best to stay up. He’s scored two in three now so hopefully he’s hit a bit of form at the right time.

"I’m really proud of the boys. In a difficult season it’s nice to have a little respite from the league. To reach the Senior Cup semi-finals two years in a row is a great achievement and it shows that on our day, we can match any team we play against.”

Hand does not mind who theGolds get drawn to face in what’s likely to be a Culver Road semi-final in February or possibly early March.

"Whoever we get drawn to play in the semi-final is fine by us. We’re looking forward to it, we’re glad to be there and we’ll give it our best shot to get to the Amex,” he said.

"But it’s back to the league now. We’ve worked out we need about eight wins to stay up. It’s going to be really, really difficult this year – it’s so tight down the bottom and there’s good sides down there – like Lancing, Herne Bay and Hythe – so it’s going to have to come from us.

"We’re going to have to win games and not rely on anybody else. It’s going to be tough because four go down and there’s really good sides in the league this year. But, same as always, we’re going to give it our absolute best and keep fighting until the last kick of the season.”