Haywards Heath Town boss Saunders bans talk about Sussex Senior Cup semi-final

Burgess Hill Town and Haywards Heath Town face each other for a place in this year’s Sussex Senior Cup final on Wednesday.
Haywards Heath Town players celebrate during their 2-0 win against Faversham. Picture by Grahame LehkyjHaywards Heath Town players celebrate during their 2-0 win against Faversham. Picture by Grahame Lehkyj
Haywards Heath Town players celebrate during their 2-0 win against Faversham. Picture by Grahame Lehkyj

The teams meet at Culver Road, Lancing, on February 27 (7.15pm kick-off) and the winners will face either Bognor Regis Town or holders Brighton and Hove Albion in the showpiece final at the Amex.

And although it’s one of the biggest matches in Mid Sussex football in recent season, Heath boss Shaun Saunders has banned all talk of the game until after the Greenwich Borough match on Saturday.

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SEE ALSO Haywards Heath Town go joint third after Faversham win - picture gallery | 'Tonight’s result doesn’t determine the rest of our season' - Burgess Hill Town lose to fellow strugglers Whitehawk | Substitutes do the job for Haywards Heath Town as they draw level with Horsham and AshfordSaunders’ side go into Saturday’s game on a run of five straight wins and the league is still the focus for the Blues. Saunders said: “There’s such a buzz about this game at the moment. It just seems everyone wants to talk about the Senior Cup. But to be honest I have banned all talk of it.

“I have said all along we need to stay in the league and that’s always been the agenda. If the season ended tomorrow and we finished just outside the play-offs it would still go down as a really good season.

“But because we are where we are, we want to see if we can make the play-offs which would be a fantastic achievement for the club.

“So we have said to the boys we don’t want any distractions. The cup game will be there after Greenwich on Saturday and then we will start to think about it.

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“I want to play it down. I don’t want us to have one eye on that game and it affect our league form because we are in fantastic league form.”

Saunders’ men have already pulled off a major shock in the competition, as they recorded a famous 3-1 victory over League 2 outfit Crawley Town at the Broadfield Stadium in Round two. They have also beaten Little Common and East Preston on the way to semis.

Haywards Heath’s last appearance in the final was some 61 years ago, when they triumphed 2-1 over Worthing at the Goldstone Ground in 1956.