Gary Croydon is confident the future is bright for crisis club Burgess Hill despite seeing his side go out of the Sussex Senior Cup at home to Eastbourne Borough last night.

Struggling Hillians pushed their Conference south opponents all the way in a game which was ultimately decided by some strange refereeing decisions.

Croydon must have wondered what he had let himself in for in his first game in charge after Steve Johnson was sacked as the referee awarded three penalties and dished out one red card.

Anthony Storey converted two spot kicks for Borough while Jean-Serge Musungu was on target for Hillians from 12 yards and the result was still in doubt until the final minute when Yemi Odubade made it 3-1 to the visitors who had been reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Dan Marney.

Croydon said: "Obviously we have lost but when you consider the quality of our opponents we cannot be too disappointed.

"Eastbourne are in Conference south and made it to the first round of the FA Cup this year but we gave them a good game and if we play like that on Saturday, I will be happy.

"Plenty of times this year we have performed well against good opposition but now we have got to start doing it on a more regular basis and, if we do, then I'm sure we will climb the table."

Croydon made four changes to the side which lost 6-0 to Whyteleafe last Wednesday. Pat Gannon returned in goal while there were also recalls for Lloyd Cotton, Kieran Curry and Danny McLaughlin.

Borough boss Garry Wilson brought back virus victims Kevin Hemsley and Darren Baker in defence.

It was clear to see why both sides are struggling during a scrappy opening 20 minutes.

The majority of the play was squeezed into the middle of the pitch with the only chance of note arising on seven minutes when Lee Hook got down well to turn away Glenn Matten's low free kick from 25 yards.

Borough slowly started to come into the game and carved out three golden chances around the half-hour mark only for their bad luck in front of goal to continue.

First Gannon saved from Ramsay whose follow-up shot was cleared off the line by Mark Pulling and then Marney hit a post and was denied by Gannon at point-blank range inside a minute.

Borough finally took the lead four minutes before the interval thanks to the first controversial intervention from the referee.

The man in black initially waved away Borough's appeals for a penalty when Storey went down in the area but then pointed to the spot on the advice of his linesman.

Storey drilled a low shot past Gannon and inside the righthand post.

The hosts might have felt aggrieved to be behind at the break but they were level 18 minutes after the restart in equally fortuitous circumstances.

Even the hosts were surprised when the referee penalised Ben Austin for shirt-pulling at a corner. To rub salt into Borough's wounds, the referee ordered a re-take for encroachment after Luke Gedling's initial effort had been saved by Hook and Musungu made no mistake at the second attempt.

The referee was not finished there, though, as he awarded Borough a second penalty for a foul on Odubade by Ryan MacMillan in the 75th minute which Storey converted and then, seven minutes from time, showed Marney a second yellow card for a foul on Cotton.

Borough made sure of a third round trip to Crawley when Odubade added a third just before the final whistle.