Whole of Littlehampton will go to Wembley - and will have the day of their lives

That’s the belief of Golds joint manager Mitch Hand as he reflects on a handsome victory in the club’s biggest game and starts to make plans for an even bigger occasion.

As has been well chronicled by us and others over the past few days, the Golds will march to the Arch on Sunday, May 22, after strolling to a 4-0 victory in the semi-final against Loughborough Students at a packed, buzzing Sportsfield on Saturday.

Hand’s fellow joint manager George Gaskin scored twice – including the opener after just 38 seconds – and Jordan Clark and Shay Wiggans were also on target in front of a crowd of 3,000. The final, against Newport Pagnell, will be the first of two on Non League Finals Day – with the FA Trophy final to follow – and Town feel they’ll need more than the 6,879 seats they’ve initially been given.

Joint boss Mitchell Hand saluted his players – and everyone at the club who ensured the semi-final was such a resounding success – and said Wembley would be for the whole town, not just the club.

How Littlehampton beat Loughborough Students to reach Wembley.

49 pictures from the Sportsfield semi-final.

One fan's view of a Golds day to remember.

“It was an incredible day,” said Hand of last Saturday. “I thought our best performance of the season was against North Shields (in the quarter-final) but this topped it by an absolute mile.

“We were well worth the win, the scoreline, the clean sheet. It couldn’t have gone better. We’d played in front of a big crowd twice (in the previous two rounds) and it hadn’t affected us – if anything it made us play even better.

“And on Saturday, the boys were unbelievable. I could tell before the game the boys were on it. To do what they did in a game of that magnitude, to dominate, was amazing.

“Scoring after 38 seconds was one of those where you didn’t know if it was too early. But we play to score the next goal – we always do. And we were so solid defensively. It was just a brilliant performance all-round.

“It was a team effort but George Gaskin deserves a lot of credit. He came into the side when Joe Benn picked up his injury but has had to give up his place for a large part of the season.

“George steps up in the big moments, we know that. and it’s no coincidence he scored two goals in the biggest game in the club’s history, and you wouldn’t put it past him to score the winner in the final as well!”

Was all the talk about Wembley in the dressing room after the game?

Hand said: “You couldn’t really hear anyone saying anything! It was constant celebrations and rightly so because we’ve got what we deserve for the hard work we’ve put in this season.

“The performances in the Vase in particular have been unbelievable.”

Town still have the SCFL premier title (and promotion to Isthmian south east) to go for and are in the latter stages of the Peter Bentley Cup and RUR Cup.

Hand said: “The big games keep coming. We’re out to win everything we’re in and the belief and momentum this gives you going into big league and other cup games, it’s a case of ‘why not us?’. Why not us in every game, every competition? We’ll go out to win everything we’re involved in.”

As for Wembley, Hand said: “I hadn’t thought about the prize, just the semi-final itself. But we’ll take the whole town to Wembley, the whole town will be with us. They’ll all be behind us and it’ll be the day of our lives.”