This Boxing Day Mid Sussex Derby between St Francis Rangers and Hassocks was a microcosm of both side’s seasons far.
Rangers’ campaign began brightly but they’ve hit a rocky patch of late with performances becoming inconsistent. Hassocks meanwhile endured a dismal start under John Suter and it has only been since he was replaced by Dave John in the dugout in mid-October that they’ve looked at the races.
That was reflected at Colwell Road in front of a bumper holiday crowd of 201, comfortably Rangers’ biggest of the season.
The hosts were the only side in it in the first half. They created the better opportunities, played the better football and should have gone into the break with more to show for their efforts than just Sam Jeremiah’s seventh minute opener.
But they failed to appear after the break and that coupled with a much-improved showing from Hassocks ensured that it was the Robins who came from nowhere really to take bragging rights with a 3-2 success.
John has seen it all before and was not particularly surprised by the turnaround once he’d delivered some choice words at the break but for Dan Bryan is was a tough result to swallow.
They gave away some soft result and the form book now reads just one win from their past eight games but Bryan has always said that inconsistency is something that Rangers will have to deal with until they become firmly established at this level.
Rangers started fast and hard and when a Dan Jacques clearance was charged down near the halfway line, Jeremiah seized on the loose ball and broke with real purpose before prodding the ball past a somewhat flat-footed Jack Simpson.
The Robins’ 17-year-old goalkeeper suffered a couple of painful injuries in the first half. First, he cracked his head on a post when ushering out a Chris Maynard shot and then took a painful blow to the body when the same player legitimately challenged for a high ball.
Although referee Neil Wallace saw it as a foul, that looked harsh on Maynard who had begun the flowing move which he then tried to get onto the end of, resulting in his collision with Simpson.
After some lengthy treatment, Simpson was sufficiently recovered to cut out a Jeremiah cross which looked destined to find Maynard arriving at the back post and those same two Rangers played linked up again, Maynard this time providing for Jeremiah who put his effort just the wrong side of the post.
Jeremiah then saw an effort well saved after his pace again unsettled the Hassocks defence in what proved to be the last chance of an excellent first half display from Rangers.
The balance of power switched straight from kick off at the start of the second half and within three minutes of the restart, Hassocks had created more than they’d managed in the entire 45 that had gone before.
Sam Fisk failed to get any power or direction on a shot on the turn and then Jacques thundered an effort against the underside of the bar after Stuart Faith had flicked on a free kick.
At the other end, Jeremiah failed to do justice to his sweet turn after a good break by Jake Forward and it was no real surprise when Hassocks equalised on 56 minutes when Faith scored with a near post header from an Anthony Hibbert corner.
It was a little more surprising when Rangers retook the lead, Faith going from hero to villain in the space of 11 minutes as his aerial challenge on Jeremiah was a clumsy one, giving Phil Gault the opportunity to score against his former club from the penalty spot.
Nine minutes later and Laurence Robinson, now beginning to show his skills after being completely nondescript in the first half, crashed a shot which beat Lehkyj but not the woodwork as the bar came to Rangers’ rescue for the second time.
There was nothing the frame of the goal could do to prevent Jamie Buckett making it 2-2, the young striker netting just three minutes after replacing Matt Amos after the hosts failed to clear a free kick.
What proved to be the winner arrived three minutes later when Robinson converted after a bad error of judgement from Lehkyj.
Rangers looked shell shocked at that point and Hassocks could have added some undeserved gloss to the scoreline, Lehkyj doing his best to atone for his mistake by denying Robinson twice in quick succession while Spencer Slaughter was inches away with a couple of well struck efforts from distance.
Hassocks: Simpson; Jacques, Faith, Marsh, Bowra, Thompson; Slaughter, Hibbert, Fisk; Amos, Robinson.
Subs: Buckett (Amos 74), Williams, Dawson, Pitcher, Gander (unused).
Starman: Stuart Faith
