Dark horses Sidley United clinched the County League title on Saturday, but only after Selsey missed an injury-time penalty.

Paul Lee's spot kick hit the post two minutes into stoppage time and enabled Sidley to win the league for the first time in their 95-year history with a game remaining.

It completes a remarkable season for the club on the outskirts of sleepy Bexhill-on-Sea, who were rank outsiders before the season started The management team of Dickie Day and assistant Peter Heritage found it hard to believe what they had achieved, having already won the John O'Hara League Cup.

Day said: "It's been one, long hard season but the players have been marvellous and they deserve it. It's brilliant, it's unbelievable and at the moment I just cannot find the words to express how I feel."

Sidley had taken a 2-0 lead through captain Wayne Farrier and teenager Simon Corke.

But they were pegged back by an Alun Morey strike with three minutes remaining and then conceded the penalty in stoppage time after keeper Paul Crowther brought down Paul Lee.

Day said: "I actually felt sick. After we had been 2-0 up I wasn't relaxed but I thought we had done it . Then they got the goal back and I thought 'maybe this just isn't meant to be.

"I didn't watch the penalty. I had to ask someone what had happened because the cheer was so big, but I didn't know if it came from us or them."

For the likable Day, the double is the pinnacle of his management career .

He said: "Someone said to me it is good for the league to see a small club win.

"We have been in the league a long time and we have come back from zilch. I'm not banging my own drum because it is not down to me but the whole club. But when I started as manager in November 1995 we were bottom of division two.

"In my first season we were halfway up the league, in the second season fourth, third season fourth, both on goal difference, and then we won it to come up."

Assistant manager Peter Heritage, a former professional with among others Hereford and Gillingham, was delighted.

Heritage said: "It is fantastic and I thought we deserved it. We went 26 games unbeaten this season and we deserved to win it.

"People say we are a small. Gary Croydon Burgess Hill manager) says we are a small club and a small club has won the league and we deserved it. We have beaten all the top sides this year and we haven't won it on a fluke."

Heritage, who had his contract at Margate bought out by the Sidley supporters when he returned to the club of his youth, added: "It means a hell of a lot to me as I am Sidley born and bred. On a personal level I have played professional but on a team level, this eclipses anything I have ever done in football.

"This has been built up over five years. We have had good players come and good players go but we have kept the same spirit.

"There are no superstars, we train hard and we don't pay out loads of money. Everyone gets the same and it is just a win bonus and that has gelled us together.

"For Dickie Day it is a fantastic achievement and he should get the freedom of Sidley."

Heritage, who missed the game with a hamstring injury, is now promising to have a tattoo to mark the achievement.

Leftback Paul Sully, who took over in goal for a number of games when Danny Poole got injured in the latter stage of the season, admitted: "When they got the penalty I thought that was our season over. That would have taken it to the last game and then the pressure would have really been on. What a way to finish.

"The thing that is so good is the spirit. Because nobody gets paid here, everybody pulls together. Everyone comes from Sidley, Bexhill and Hastings "

Sidley: Crowther, O. Ball, Sully, Farrier, Copley, B. Poole, Ward, M. Ball, Balch, Corke, A. Day. Unused subs: Bolton, Ralley, Dadswell. Booked: Corke.

Selsey: Judd, S. Hinshelwood, M. Hinshelwood, M. Lee, G. Morey, Rishman, Ford, A. Morey, Reed, P. Lee, Davis. Unused subs: Hurst, Fewster, Gaskin. Booked: A. Morey, Ford.

Men-of-the-Match: Paul Balch (Sidley); A Morey (Selsey).