Littlehampton Town joint boss Mitch Hand talks to Colin Bowman about a defeat at Hanworth Villa and recalls their FA Vase final at Wembley

SussexWorld

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00:01Good afternoon and welcome to Hanworth Villa where Littlehampton has just come

00:07off a back of a 3-0 loss. I've got the Littlehampton manager with me Mitchell

00:13Hand who has been there since 2021 if I believe. Before we talk about today's

00:20game I just wanted to get your reaction on an absolutely fantastic experience of

00:27leading your team out at Wembley in the FA Vars. That must have been a brilliant time for you guys.

00:33Yeah it feels a long time ago now to be honest especially after a result like today. Ironically

00:39we lost 3-0 that day as well but yeah no that was that was something that we'll never forget. It was

00:44a great experience and then a couple of years later at the Amex as well was almost just a special but

00:49yeah it feels a long a long time ago. Well I'm going to harp on about that. Littlehampton have

00:56been a real breath of fresh air for Sussex football over those five years. You've been

01:01a huge part of it. I'm sure there must be progression now that you're looking to go further.

01:10Yes I haven't often heard us described as a breath of fresh air to be honest but

01:15no that's nice to hear. It's a nice thing to say but yeah I mean for us we're still trying to find

01:21our feet obviously in this this new division. We're doing okay we're doing all right I'd say

01:25it's a mediocre start but yeah for me and for me and Georgia and the club to jump up one more level

01:31is the that's the aim that's the target whether that's going to be sooner rather than later I'm

01:35not sure but I know the club are giving us plenty of time to do that but yeah that's the aim and the

01:39ambition for the club to try and jump up one more league and and see what we can do at that sort

01:43of level. Yeah this is a new league this is the Ishmian South Central rather than the Ishmian

01:49Southeast from last season. You're playing a whole load of new clubs. I know the fans are

01:55traveling around seeing new grounds that they have done today. This is probably a new ground

01:59for most of them. You came up against a really solid team today. They were really good in the

02:07first half. I think your goalkeeper made two or three miraculous saves in the first half

02:11to keep it nil-nil. Did you gamble in that second half? We didn't actually. I could see

02:18the result coming because we rode our luck so much in the first half. They were just much

02:21better than us. Sometimes you've just got my I've got a real pet hate at the moment for

02:25managers talking about teams giving their teams giving goals away constantly. All these

02:30teams seem to be giving goals away. They scored good goals. They scored really good goals

02:33today. They opened us up. They could have scored more. They caught us on a day where we

02:37weren't quite at it but I can't knock them or try and take any credibility for a poor

02:44performance on our behalf. I just thought they were really good and they were much better

02:46than us. Yeah, they were really good today. That's probably one of the most ruthless home

02:52performances I've seen this. I've seen a lot of football this season and they were really

02:57good. Yeah, they were dominant. They completely dominated the game. They had all the chances.

03:00There wasn't a stage in the game where I felt comfortable even at nil-nil. At half-time I said

03:04to the boys, I've seen these games of football hundreds of times. I know what's coming and

03:08you're very lucky to come in at nil-nil and it won't stay like that for very long because

03:12good sides don't consistently miss chances. So they came out and they punished our second

03:16half and we can have no complaints. I'm one of them where if we get beat fair and square

03:19you've just got to shake hands and walk away and give it to them.

03:22Exactly. Moving forward now, you've got a home game against South Park on Tuesday. I'm

03:28guessing you're looking forward to that and then I couldn't believe the game you're

03:32playing next Saturday. Kingstonian away, is that right? I mean, they're a massive club,

03:37aren't they? Yeah, they are. So two huge opportunities coming up. Yeah, I mean, we've

03:42been inconsistent. We're middle of the board because we win one, lose one, draw one. It

03:46just seems to be how it goes. But yeah, a couple of massive games coming up. That's

03:51the good thing is after you take a beating like today, you know that you've only got a

03:55couple of days till you play again. It's at home. So yeah, I'd like to think that we'd

03:58have some form of reaction. The boys will get a reaction from me. I'm hoping that they

04:02give one as well. But yeah, you've just got to take it and move on. This league is

04:06relentless. So the games keep coming. Well, thank you very much for coming to talk to

04:10me. It's very appreciated. I am in awe of standing next to a manager who's taken his

04:15club to Wembley. I mean, that really is fantastic. There's not many people who can say that.

04:21So a huge congratulations for that. I know it was a little time ago. Commuterations for

04:27today. And I'm sure little hands are going to bounce back. Thank you, mate. Appreciate it.

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