Poor Golds display 'disgusts' boss Baker

Goals from Emerson Guimaraes, Bailo Camara and Steven Hickman-Smith helped Uckfield to a 3-1 victory - helping them move above Littlehampton, who dropped to second from bottom.

Golds Baker admits the pitch made things tricky but lamented an unacceptable performance.

He said: “We turned up looked at the pitch and it seemed to go wrong from that point. It was in an awful condition, but that is no excuse, it’s the same for both teams.

“It took until the final ten minutes for us to really get going, that is not acceptable. This was a chance for us to open up a gap over Uckfield and Arundel below us, instead we ended up dropping down a place.

“Each of their goals were down to individual errors, which is something we need to eradicate.

“We’ve been in a time of transition having lost so many players this season but we’ve got to start improving and putting in consistent performances.

“We’ve got to be a whole lot better than we were against Uckfield.”

Golds got off to the worst possible start, falling behind inside three minutes as Guimaraes was left unmarked to fire past Luke Hutchings.

Dean Janman struck 19 minutes later to level things up but two quick goals before the break put Uckfield in control. Camara put the home side back ahead after 41 minutes, then Hickman-Smith made it three a minute prior to the interval. Golds created numerous chances as they looked for a way back in after the break but they were beaten 3-1 in the end.

Littlehampton are without a game on Saturday, then travel to Culver Road on Tuesday to take on division-higher Horsham for a Sussex Senior Cup third-round clash

LITTLEHAMPTON TOWN: Hutchings; Sharpe, McKay, T.Bromage, Chaplin; Kempson, Bankole, Janman; Pattenden, Cole, Heath. Subs: Amoo (Heath, 50), Stewart-Hunter (Bankole, 65), Sparks (Sharpe, 85).