EVENTFUL AFTERNOON FOR SPIES AS ROBINS LOSE AT WISDOMS
Steve Spies had an afternoon he is unlikely to forget anytime soon as Hassocks III’s suffered their annual defeat at Victoria Park against Wisdom Sports.
Wisdoms ended up winning 3-1 and Spies ended up delivering a performance which they’ll be talking about for some time yet.
Hassocks had started the game brightly and debutant Dan Hyttner almost got off to the perfect start when he nearly scored inside of the first 12 seconds.
Hassocks caught Wisdoms by surprise to charge straight into the home side’s box from kick off with Hyttner firing an effort over the bar from a promising position.
The Robins did open the scoring shortly after when veteran striker Robbie Kitchen stole a yard, used his strength to hold off a defender and finished with a fine strike with his left foot.
It was important for Hassocks to build on their superb start against quality opposition but Wisdoms responded well and started to dominate, which set the pattern for the rest of the game really.
Hassocks managed to make it to to half time with their lead still intact but they were forced into a change at the break when Tom Green came off feeling unwell to be replaced by Kevin Garratt.
That led to some positional changes as James Watkin dropped in at centre back for Green and Garrett took over from Watkin in central midfield.
Additionally, Hassocks faced the challenge of playing against a wind that was getting stronger and defending the half of the pitch which was far more bumpy.
A difficult second half looked in store and it was only a few minutes old when Spies’ afternoon began to take a turn for the worst in what turned out to be an interesting 20 minutes for him.
He was unfortunate to be the last player to get a touch on a Simon Sheeran cross for a headed own goal that gave Scott McCarthy no chance at the near post.
After that, Spies was then unlucky to have been adjudged to have handled the ball in the area. The referee pointed to the spot and up stepped Sheeran but McCarthy stood big and the penalty was hit wide.
Rarely did Hassocks look like responding and they were soon 2-1 behind as they failed to defend another corner, allowing Tyrone Stoner to come round the back and score with a free header. No prizes for guessing who was meant to be marking him.
With about 15 minutes to go the game was all but over as Spies gave away his second penalty of the afternoon after producing a marvellous full length diving save from a a shot.
But since he wasn’t the Hassocks goalkeeper, the referee had no choice but to give Spies a straight red. He left the field bewildered, apologising to manager Simon Maskell as he walked off before bursting into laughter.
Masky didn’t seem to see the funny side and suspicions were further raised when Spies revealed he was going on a Haywards Heath pub crawl with the Wisdoms players after the match.
Sheeran made not mistake with the second penalty which was securely struck past McCarthy to wrap up a deserved 3-1 success for Wisdoms.
On a positive note, it was good to see Brendan Leahy return after a long term injury and it was an interesting performance from Spiesy, which certainly cheered everyone up back at the Beacon when the result was phoned home.
Hassocks: Scott McCarthy; Dan Hyttner, Steve Spies, Ollie Bowles, Tom Green, Dan Goodrum; Brendan Leahy, Jordan Srihran, James Watkin; Mike Damario, Robbie Kitchen.
Subs: Kevin Garratt (Green), Mike Goulden (Hyttner), Simon Maskell (unused).
