WOODWORK WOES RESTRICT ROBINS TO JUST A POINT AT THE SPORTS PAVILION
The woodwork was all that stood between Hassocks and ending Lingfield’s unbeaten start to the Division One season. Twice the hosts saw the frame of their goal rattled by Michael Bates and Dan Jacques in the final 30 minutes at the Sports Pavillion as an entertaining game ended 1-1.
Once again Hassocks had led 1-0 but as in previous outings against Arundel, Three Bridges and Peacehaven & Telscombe, the Robins had to settle for a point after opening the scoring. It was their fifth draw of the campaign.
Conditions weren’t great as a rock hard, bumpy surface made it difficult to get the ball under control. Both sides tried to play in the first half at least before Lingfield opted for the more direct route once they had the swirling wind slightly in their favour.
Nobody could blame the hosts for that. In Andrew Dalhouse, the Lingers have a powerhouse centre forward who will give even the most physical of defences a battle. With the lively Joel Greaves and Joel Hughes playing off him, Lingfield have the personnel to mix up good football with a route one approach to good effect. That is one of the reasons why they are yet to taste defeat in the league.
Greaves and Hughes caused plenty of problems with their pace – as most forwards with a turn of foot seem to against Hassocks – but despite that, Joel Harding had just one meaningful shot to save in the first period.
It was an excellent reaction stop from the Robins goalkeeper. He looked initially to have been wrongfooted after Steve Cant’s effort took a deflection off Sol Bowra but somehow readjusted and flung himself in the opposite direction across goal to push the shot away.
Greaves was off target when he should have at least tested Harding in Lingfield’s other obvious chance. For Hassocks, Phil Gault was causing real problems to the home defence and he drew a fine save from Tim Roberts with a distance effort.
Gault gave Hassocks the lead seven minutes before half time, brilliantly lobbing the advancing Roberts for his fifth goal since returning from St Francis Rangers. The finish was superb but James Laing deserves just as much credit for his excellent through ball which created the opportunity in the first place.
Hughes tested Harding early in the second half from long range before a flurry of fouls were committed against the tricky Lingfield forward. Both Jacques and Ashley Marsh entered the book in the space of 15 minutes for bringing down Hughes as the Robins struggled to find a way to legally halt his advances. Both before and after that, Jacques had dealt with Hughes expertly on his way to the Hassocks starman award.
Hassocks were dealt a blow on the hour mark when the influential Terry Gacias limped off with a hamstring injury. Bates took his place in the middle of the park and nearly scored with his first touch, a 20 yard shot which rattled the crossbar for the first of those opportunities denied by the woodwork.
Almost immediately, Bronek Dabrona did the same at the other end after a goalmouth scramble before Lingfield found a somewhat fortuitous equaliser with 12 minutes remaining.
Olly Young’s teasing cross the right was parried away low down by Harding. The ball ricocheted into Sam McCarthy’s knee, ballooning upwards onto his shoulder from where it nestled agonisingly in the Hassocks net.
There were some vague noises from the Robins about handball, but it had come off McCarthy’s shoulder rather than his arm and he had no control over what had just happened. In fact, he seemed as surprised as anyone to have scored.
Hassocks responded well to the setback and within 60 seconds they almost regained the lead. Gault and Anthony Hibbert linked up well to set up Jacques who hit a sweet volley from the edge of the box but again the woodwork came to Lingfield’s rescue as the shot smashed against the post and away to safety.
Hassocks: Joel Harding; Dan Jacques, Sol Bowra, Ashley Marsh, Stuart Faith, Arni Kublickas; Terry Gacias, Spencer Slaughter, Anthony Hibbert; Phil Gault, James Laing.
Subs: Michael Bates (Gacias 62), Neil Kane (Laing 82), Martin Woods (Gault 90), Chris Scrase, Jason Gander (unused).
Starman: Good all-round team performance, especially at the back against difficult opponents but just goes to Dan Jacques who did pretty well against the lively Joel Hughes.
