At the end of a freezing night at The Enclosed Ground manager Shaun Saunders gives his verdict after his side’s battling 0-0 draw with Burgess Hill Town.

“Frustrating night, that’s how I come away thinking – I was very frustrated at the end of it. I think we’ve been great all season – all through the summer our pre-season was great, lads have been brilliant – but I just think, for whatever reason, we weren’t great last night at all. It’s unusual for me to be negative in any way about the group because they’ve been fantastic but we had an off night without a doubt – we were not at our best.

I’ve said all along, I’ve been in and around this league long enough now to know on their day anybody can beat anybody. It’s all about on the night, and they [Burgess Hill] came and made it really difficult for us. It was a fair result, I have no qualms about the result. There were chances for both sides.”

Burgess Hill, who came into the match in 18th position, looked a well-drilled side from the outset, making life difficult for the hosts as they struggled in their search of an opener.

“I knew it would be difficult, they were never going to come and roll over for us. They were going to get about us and they did, and we had a night off if you like. But on the plus side to that it hasn’t happened before, it was just frustrating for us I felt. I don’t know whether Saturday’s game at Folkestone – where to a man we gave 120% – that this game came too soon for us, I’m not sure but it’s unlike us to have one those nights, it’s just my job now to make sure it doesn’t happen too often.”

“So yeah, frustrated all round but like I said the group has been fantastic and we’ll bounce back. On the plus side to that we haven’t lost, it’s another clean sheet, I felt defensively we were very solid so there’s lots of pluses to come from that. It wasn’t all negative, it’s just frustrating that we probably expected to win the game but didn’t apply ourselves properly on the night.

But I’ve got to be careful, they’ve been fantastic so I don’t want to be too negative. It’s just one of those nights where we couldn’t find the finish to get the points but we move on.”

The Hawks take a short break before retuning to action on Saturday, October 22 as East Grinstead Town journey down to the coast for another league test, before hosting Faversham Town the following Saturday.