Littlehampton Town are delighted to announce they have signed star striker Rob O’Toole for the 2024/25 season. The 33-year-old comes to the team with a wealth of Isthmian League experience and is a sign of major intent for the West Sussex club who are bolstering their squad ahead of the new season.

During his career, the frontman has enjoyed a prolific goal-scoring record and has won multiple league titles for the likes of Peacehaven & Telscombe, East Preston, Burgess Hill Town and Haywards Heath Town. After long stints at Horsham and, more recently, Whitehawk, O’Toole can’t wait to start playing for the Marigolds.

“I’m really looking forward to getting started. I’ve been speaking to [joint managers] Mitch Hand and George Gaskin for a while now as they’ve wanted to get me down here and I’m excited about the new start and the exciting challenge ahead,” said O’Toole.

Pictured in front of the new stand being built at the Sportsfield, O’Toole is looking forward to spearheading Littlehampton Town’s third season in the Isthmian Football League, South East Division.

“I want to help Littlehampton Town as best as I can by scoring goals and finishing in the highest position we can achieve. A lot has changed since I last visited and the goal now is to help push the team forward.”

Speaking during O’Toole’s visit to the Sportsfield, joint manager Mitchell Hand was full of praise for the star striker, he said: “We’ve been chasing Rob for years now. George and I had the pleasure of playing with him at Shoreham, almost ten years ago. We’ve always stayed in contact and every Sussex-based club wanted to sign him, but luckily for us he wants to come and play here.

“We felt we lacked a bit of experience and know-how in this division last season, so we’ve signed a player who has participated in this league for years. He was captain of Whitehawk in the division above last year and what Rob gives you on the pitch is priceless, but off the pitch it’s really important as well. He’ll be a real leader for us this coming season.

“Rob as an individual will come into a team and score goals,” added Mitch. “We were missing goals last year and he instantly will come in and give us that. We want to move forward, we want to improve and signing players like Rob will help us get there.”

Littlehampton Town’s pre-season gets underway with a Community Funday on July 7th, when the new stand will be unveiled with a friendly match against Bognor Regis Town. The appointment of O’Toole is the first of a number of signings that will take place over pre-season, with more news due in the coming weeks.