Too easy Golds as Lancers are hit for six

The result never really looked in doubt from the moment Golds took a third-minute lead at Culver Road as they impressively maintained their push for a top-two finish.

Lancers dropped a place in the County League Division 1 table to fourth from bottom with the defeat and their manager Richard Whittington claimed his side made it “too easy” for their high-flying visitors.

He said: “We started badly and got worse. Apart from a little ten-minute spell, it was a poor, poor night for us.

“We couldn’t keep hold of the ball, gave away poor goals and gave them too much time and space, it was too easy for them.

Littlehampton went ahead after only three minutes when Liam Humphreys was left unmarked at the back post to head home Alex Kew’s corner.

On 26 minutes, Littlehampton keeper Jon Hendrick launched a long goal kick downfield into the path of Gray, who ran through one-on-one and rifled home his finish past James Shaw.

Lancing responded instantly, though, and got themselves back into the game straight from the restart when Alex Spinks finished well after good build up on the right.

Golds started the second half strongly and, after Danny Hand’s snap-shot was kept out by Shaw, they extended their lead on 53 minutes.

It was the best goal of the game, too, as Mitchell Hand’s perfectly-struck free kick flew into the top corner.

Littlehampton were cruising by this point and added a fourth through Dan Simmonds’ superb close-range volley from a Danny Hand cross on the hour.

Golds then added two more in the closing stages as substitute Scott Packer profited from a deflection off Dave Sharman, before fellow sub Sam Blundell completed the rout with a close-range finish in the 81st minute.

Full report in this week’s paper.