Burgess Hill out of FA Cup – but first league point is in bag

Hill lost 3-1 at higher-division Met Police in the second qualifying round of the cup on Saturday but claimed their first league point when Lewis Finney scored in a 1-1 home draw with Haywards Heath on Tuesday.

Lovett said: “We played well against a good Met Police side. We took a good 15/20 minutes to find our feet and get the ball moving.

"We went one down in the first half, but felt confident in the second half we could get ourselves back into the game.

"We started off brightly had a couple of half chances, then scored a well built-up goal, with Jeff Duah Kessie finding the net.

"About 10 minutes later, we got caught out, ended up giving away a penalty, Brad got his second yellow and we went down to 10 men and they scored the penalty..

"Playing against a good side from the league above with 10 men was going to be challenging. We learnt a lot from the game, had very good spells and I felt held our own. Good luck to Met Police in the next round – we hope they do well.

"We've played very well in recent cup games, now it's time to take that into the league. We have been unfortunate at times not to get points on the board, but we aren’t going to get down about it, just work harder to get it right.

"We know where we should be, now it's down to us to pull together and start a winning streak.

"East Grinstead, who we have on Saturday, have started very fast and picked up good results."

There is no easy game in this league.

"We still have Lewis Taylor out injured and he’s been missed, he is a leader on the pitch and a calm head under pressure, but it'll be a few weeks til we have him back.

"Ollie Allen may be fit for the weekend after a thigh strain and we will see how Dan Perry's ankle is after a collision with the Met Police keeper at the weekend.”