Baker confident Golds can turn things around

Golds sit bottom of the Southern Combination League Premier Division at present and have seen several players depart over the past month.

George Gaskin and Lee Garnham made the move to Bostik League South Shoreham earlier in the month, while Niall O’Hagan (also Shoreham), Kieron Playle-Howard (Wick) and Shay Wiggans have followed suit and decided to leave.

Just two wins from 11 league matches has seen Littlehampton slump to the bottom of the Premier Division – but Baker is keeping the faith.

Talented youngsters Harry Heath and Zack Sharp have joined Golds to bolster squad numbers, while Baker revealed seven-day approaches have been made for several players.

He said: “The squad I assembled at the start of the season looked a really good one, on paper.

“I was under the impression that everyone wanted to be at this club but things have changed as the season has gone on and now we’ve lost several players.

“It’s disappointing to have lost the players that we have but my focus now is building a squad that want to be at this football club.

“Players are showing me they want to be here with performances and we have been working hard in training.”

Baker, whose team were without a game at the weekend, held a meeting with coaches and players on Saturday.

The outcome of that was something positive for the Littlehampton manager to take forward.

In their last game, Golds claimed a point at Three Bridges, which Baker believes was a performance and result his squad can build on moving forward.

He said: “The way we played in that game was really pleasing.

“We’d not been on the best of runs but we went to a team that came down from the league above last season and showed what we are capable of.

“We’ve got some really good players within this squad; it’s just a case of them stepping up at what is a difficult time for us at this moment.”

Basement boys Golds, fresh from a 14-day break, welcome Lancing to The Sportsfield on Saturday. For Lancers, it will be a third game over the course of just seven days.

Lancing faced Arundel in the Peter Bentley Cup last weekend, then lost 5-0 at Worthing in the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday and now head to Golds.

Despite being well rested, Littlehampton boss Baker knows how tough it will be to pick up maximum points.

He said: “It’s so tight down at the bottom that a couple of wins could see us out of trouble.

“We’ll be a lot fresher than Lancing going in to the game on Saturday but they are on a really good run at this minute.

“They are a team that work for each other and have a lot of talent throughout their squad.

“Our home games are going to be important, we want to pick up as many points as we can in our home games.”