‘One of finest moments of my career’ – Jay Lovett on Burgess Hill Town’s promotion triumph

Lovett and Gary Mansell’s side were the toast of Sussex after a 3-2 penalty shootout win at Sittingbourne last Friday night that clinched their promotion back to step three of the non-league game.

It capped a season in which Hill were rarely out of the top three in the Isthmian South East table.

Lovett said of Friday night’s amazing scenes: “That winning feeling was hard to describe. It was sort of a shock that it had all happened, you’re completely elated because it had happened and you had been promoted and it was a surreal moment.

“As soon as you see the sea of yellow and green flying on to the pitch and the players running towards the fans it becomes an even greater moment. It was a really proud moment for us – I’ve watched the winning moment back quite a few times now.

“It’s one of the finest moments of my career, for certain, celebrating with everyone. As a managing duo and as a club we always want to get better and achieve more, we have ambitions and ideas on where we want to go and thankfully the club share the same ambitions as us.

“The club will continue to grow.

“This is up there for one of the best achievements I’ve been part of and I’ve been promoted a few times now. We’re completely proud of everyone this season and It’s been a pleasure working with Gary to achieve it.”

Hill went to Sittingbourne knowing their hosts, who finished second in the table, had not lost at home in the league.

But they were unfazed and after trailing at the break, battled back superbly and levelled through Stefan Vukoje to set up penalties.

“We knew it would be tough going to Sittingbourne, they had a great season and scored over 100 goals so we knew they’d be a threat going forward and their fans would make a lot of noise but so did our fans and that gave us motivation to keep playing and performing.

“We did our preparation on the penalties and our keeper Slav Huk has one of the better save percentages from penalties so we had confidence in him to save at least one.”

See full coverage of the promotion triumph in the Mid Sussex Times – out on Thursday