It might be too early in the season to be talking of relegation battles and six pointers but there was no doubt last Saturday's encounter at The Sportsfield was crucial to both teams. Phoenix Sports were winless and rock bottom of the league table while Littlehampton had only one victory to show from their opening six matches.

One might have expected to see a nervous and cautious approach to proceedings with so much at stake, but the home side settled quickly and delivered a first half performance of such quality that any neutral would have been shocked that Golds had started the day in the bottom four.

Kieron Pamment was integral to the positive start and tested Phoenix keeper Rob Budd within five minutes after his run and cross shot from the right. The visitors didn’t learn their lesson and on 18 minutes Pamment made similar progress down the right before squaring for Dion Jarvis to finish from tap in range.

Within five minutes Golds were two up and this time Pamment was the finisher with an ice cold chip over the keeper after some impressive approach work from Rob O’ Toole set him up. Jarvis then missed a golden opportunity to put Golds three up. However in the 34th minute they did get a third goal that was the minimum their performance deserved. This goal was probably the pick of the three as Pamment scythed a path down the left before picking out Ryan Yoro-Thomas for the defender to finish clinically from the right edge of the visitor's box.

Phoenix Sports were undoubtedly a little shell shocked and were probably grateful for the half time interval. In fairness they did respond in the second half as the contest took on a much more even hue but Golds defended with tenacity and discipline to ensure keeper Mac Chisholm wasn’t really tested.

Golds rarely looked like adding to their tally until with four minutes left they iced the cake in the most special way. Joe Benn the goalscoring hero of their stellar FA Vase final campaign in 2022 has had horrendous luck with illness and injury since. He made a brief substitute appearance in Tuesday’s County Cup game against Peacehaven but this time had been given half an hour to make an impression.

There had been the odd few touches to remind us of his class and in the 86th minute fellow substitute George Gaskin won the ball back in Phoenix territory. He swiftly fed his old partner in crime Benn who delayed slightly to see if the one-two was on. Suddenly space opened up instead which enabled Benn to pick his spot with familiar laser like precision to make it 4-0 and crown an excellent afternoon for Golds.

John Clarke