Hastings United continued their climb up the Ryman Premier with an ultimately convincing 3-1 win over Horsham at the Pilot Field yesterday.

A third successive victory lifted Hastings up to seventh in the table while their Sussex rivals slipped to 14th.

They had to do it the hard way after falling behind inside two minutes to a Ben Andrews' goal.

Michael Phillips got Hastings back on level terms in the very next attack with his first goal for the club and second-half strikes from Scott Ramsay and Sam Adams made sure of the points.

Bognor are still looking for their first win after a 3-1 defeat at Tooting & Mitcham where Michael Birmingham got the consolation with a second-half penalty.

In division one south, Burgess Hill lost to an injury-time goal as they went down 1-0 to Folkestone Invicta at Leylands Park.

Steve Ibbitson admitted to some concerns after Lewes lost 3-0 away to Bromley in Blue Square south.

Defeat left the Rooks still looking for their first win of the season and dropped them to second from bottom in the table.

Boss Ibbitson is confident he has a good enough squad to avoid trouble but admits they need to turn things round soon.

The absence of key players Danny Cullip and Dan Beck continues to hit them hard as the bulk of the squad are lacking experience.

Ibbitson said: “In the first half we played pretty well but in the second half we stopped playing. It was a bit worrying to be honest.

“We were playing well but as soon as they scored we seemed to go back to the situation last year when we almost seem to expect to get beaten. It is something we need to guard against."

“What we need to do is get a settled side and a settled way of playing. To be fair, we have been making a number of changes to the side and the formation we play and we need to settle things down.”