John Suter hailed Horsham YMCA's 4-0 win at Burgess Hill as his side's best performance of the season.

Hillians boss Gary Croydon described his team's display as spineless and gutless' as they slipped below their Sussex rivals in Ryman division one south.

YM strode to victory with goals from Glen Woodburn, Dean Carden (penalty), Matt Russell and Scott Kirkwood and Suter revealed the margin of victory had surprised him.

He said: "That was out best performance of the season. I have been saying all along that we are not good enough to beat any team in this division comprehensively.

"However, that was a comprehensive victory and we could have won by more. We have the best away record in the league and that was our fourth clean sheet on the trot so I am pleased."

Hill boss Croydon said: "There is too much talk about us needing more strikers.

"If you do not defend properly in this league then you are going to get heavily beaten, as we saw here.

"We had a lot of success earlier in the season and that was built on sound defending. That today was a gutless and spineless performance and if we don't start defending properly we will be closer to the bottom end of the table than the top."

The writing was on the wall for the Hillians as early as the fourth minute when Andy Ottley wasted a glorious opening when yards from a gaping goal after Pat Massaro had broken through and forced keeper Chris May into parrying his shot.

Four minutes later Massaro's corner picked out YM centre-half Glen Woodburn and his powerful header went in via a defender on the line.

The hosts were on top after the break without forcing YM keeper Dean Ruddy in to anything more than routine saves and the visitors made it 2-0 on 54 minutes when Carden converted a penalty after a foul by Shaun Grice on Kirkwood.

Russell added the third on 64 minutes from an Ottley low centre after a Massaro stepover and Kirkwood powered home the fourth in injury time.

Hillians: May, Edmonds (Matten 90), Greatwich, Piper (Hall Pike 64), Joyce, Hill, Grice, Pulling, Skinner, Jarvis, Bye. Subs not used: Watts, Keehan, Pullin.

Horsham YMCA: Ruddy, Carden, Levett, Hooper, Woodburn, White, Russell (Davies 73), Kirkwood, Duffield, Massaro (Sackman 78), Ottley (Greenfield 67). Subs not used: Shoefield, Westoby.