Burgess Hill striker Ashley Carr volunteered to play in goal on Saturday, even though he knew it would hamper his efforts to become the club's top scorer.

There is fierce competition at Leylands Park between Carr, Steve Harper and Phil Churchill to be the club's leading goalscorer.

The trio have scored 20,17 and 20 goals respectively this term for the County League table-toppers, and Carr admits he did himself no favours when he stepped in for the concussed Pat Gannon.

Carr donned the gloves for 70 minutes during a 2-1 win in the John O'Hara Cup at Westfield and kept a clean sheet.

The 32-year-old striker said: "I kept looking at the goal and thinking how big it was. When you are a forward and you have the goal in front of you, it looks a lot smaller.

"I went in even though I hadn't played in goal before. I had one cross to take and I didn't really have much to do to be honest."

Following his brief spell between the posts, Carr returned to the attack with devastating effect on when he notched a hat-trick in Tuesday's Sussex Senior Cup victory over Shoreham. Hill have now won 15 consecutive matches.

Carr said: "It's good to have three lads who are knocking on 20 goals already this season. We have virtually got 60 between the three of us."

But Carr is playing down his chances of finishing as the club's top scorer. He said: "I've always played with a smaller quick forward who has scored more goals than me.

"Churchill is a great player. He's very quick and works hard as well. I would say almost certainly he is going to beat me in the scoring stakes. He averages about 30 goals a season year in, year out."

Harper meanwhile, is hoping to swap division one of the County League for the Nationwide division one.

The 19-year-old striker has been training with Millwall this week and he spent his first day on Monday with Mark McGhee's first team.

Harper said: "It went well, the pace of the little games was quick and I had to get used to that, but it was enjoyable."