HASSOCKS STEADY THE SHIP BUT NO THRILLS IN BORE DRAW
Having both suffered heavy defeats at the weekend, the players and management of East Grinstead Town and Hassocks were probably relieved to steady their respective ships somewhat with a 0-0 draw at East Court.
Those watching might struggle to agree, however. It was turgid stuff by and large, devoid of any entertainment with the only consolation for Robins fans being they did not ship four goals like at Sidlesham on Saturday.
That big win for Sids lifted them off the bottom of the Sussex County League Division One table. Grinstead took their place after a hammering at Whitehawk, but have now handed over last place to Redhill courtesy of this point. A reason for the hosts to be satisfied too.
Dave John said afterwards he felt the draw was about the right result. After two poor performances in which Hassocks have failed to score, John must be keeping everything crossed that striker James Laing will be fit to return for Saturday’s trip to Peacehaven & Telscombe in the FA Vase.
Pat Harding is missing his strike partner even more than John. This was one of those games where a single touch of Harding magic could have transformed proceedings, but the Robins again struggled to get their talisman involved much without the foil of Laing alongside him.
Having seemingly discarded the experiment of playing Graham Beveridge as a target man following the Sidlesham horror show when his abilities in the vital holding role were missed, John gave a full debut to young reserves striker Richard Thomas in attack.
Thomas showed plenty of promise and work rate as one of the few bright spots. Stuart Faith also stood out again with his ability and commitment at the back.
The opening quarter hour set the tone for what was going to come. It was lame and a complete non-event with things only improving marginally over the next 75 minutes.
Grinstead hit a post midway through the first half via Chris Trevor, who was one of the best players on show. Ricard Thompson was then inches away shortly after.
The best opportunity of the game for Hassocks fell to Mickey Turner on 58 minutes. Harding was the provider, escaping down the left and crossing for Turner cutting in from his right flank.
An awkward bounce on what was a poor pitch just as Turner was about to strike meant the ball flew a long way over the top of a gaping goal.
Harding managed to threaten on one occasion late on with a chance he worked all by himself. It ended with a neat turn and shot from outside the box which skimmed the outside of the post.
Grinstead could easily have snatched all three points right at the death with two chances in the space of as many minutes.
First, Lee Hanson saw a great chance deflected behind by Faith. Steve Norris then thought he had scored with a close range header from the resulting corner, only for Joel Harding to pull off an instinctive reaction save.
So an improvement on the rocky horror show at Sidlesham but then again, could it possibly have been worse? Hassocks know better will we be needed to avoid a Vase upset at the hands of lowly Division Two Peacehaven next.
Hassocks: Joel Harding; Mickey Turner, Nick Newman, Chris Hewitt, Stuart Faith, Richard Thompson; Ian Dawson, Graham Beveridge, Anthony Hibbert; Richard Thomas, Pat Harding.
Subs: Nathan Harvey, Steve Hudson, Tom Stripp, Phil Wickwar (unused).
