HASSOCKS PUSH TITLE CHASING BRIDGES ALL THE WAY
If Three Bridges go onto lift the Sussex County League title this season – and surely only Crawley Down and maybe Rye United can stop them – then they will certainly look back on their clashes with Hassocks knowing that they had to work mighty hard for their four points.
It was against the Robins that the leaders surrendered their proud 100% record back in October when held to a 1-1 draw at Jubilee Field and since then, they’ve invested even more heavily in quality additions with the aim of being crowned champions for the first time.
Yet despite all that money, they could only manage one goal on an icy Tuesday night at the Beacon and while that proved to be enough to beat a Hassocks side missing several key players, Bridges were never able to relax until the final whistle blew.
Perhaps that tension and the fact that things didn’t go completely their way was responsible for their constant and unacceptable griping at referee Frank Meilack in the opening half hour.
Almost from the first whistle, Bridges contested every single decision given by Mr Meilack, a strange outpouring of anger given that supporters of both sides agreed afterwards that Mr Meilack generally did a good job.
In fact, the one area that probably let him down was his reluctance to book any Bridges player for dissent early on with former Lewes striker Simon Wormwull eventually becoming the first player to receive a yellow with 20 minutes on the clock.
Mr Meilack had offered plenty of warnings before that and once he’d found his way into his pocket for Wormwull, another five players entered the book.
Spencer Slaughter and Pete Lear were the home players to be shown yellow along with Bridges’ Lee Carney, Elliott Romain and substitute Michael Death.
The visitors’ ill discipline was best summed up when goal scorer Romain had to be hauled before he was sent off, only for his replacement Death to be booked for a petulant kick out right in front of Mr Meilack less than two minutes after he’d come on.
For all the individual talent in this Bridges side, they rarely looked capable of performing as a team which is ultimately why the non-footballing antics were the main talking point come the final whistle.
Hassocks meanwhile had the opposite problem; they huffed and they puffed with plenty of honest endeavour but were lacking any real threat up front to inflict damage on the league leaders.
With Dan Smith side lined by a long term back injury, veteran striker James Laing was asked to plough a lonely furrow up front on a rare start.
Mickey Jewell did eventually throw on three forwards from the bench in Neil Kane, Nathan Miles and Dan Shergold late on but they weren’t able to find a way to upset the Bridges bandwagon.
Chances were few and far between in general and once Hassocks’ admirable defence of Lear, Ashley Marsh, Andy Whittingham and young Stuart Brown were breached three minutes before half time by Romain, it always looked like an uphill battle for Hassocks to take anything from tie.
Chris Head out on the left offered Bridges their best outlet in the first half and when he was released by Wormwull’s astute pass, the pull back was converted less than convincingly by Romain.
Jack Simpson was definitely the busier of the two goalkeepers but compared to his evening’s work in the Sussex Senior Cup defeat to Horsham a week previously, this was practically a night off for the Robins’ young number one who is now learning his craft rapidly and turning in some seriously consistent performances.
At the end of the evening, it was good to have it reinforced that while individual flair can light up matches, football remains essentially a team game.
Bridges may well wind up lifting their first title in four months time, but in terms of the collective then Hassocks may in some ways be further down the line than their visitors.
Hassocks: Jack Simpson; Stuart Brown, Ashley Marsh, Pete Lear, Andy Whittingham; Jamie Weston, Kieran O’Callaghan, Phil Gault, Spencer Slaughter, Elliott Butler; James Laing.
Subs: Nathan Miles (Slaughter, 65), Neil Kane (Laing 79), Dan Shergold (Weston 79).
Starman: The whole defence did particularly well in a typically gutsy Hassocks performance.
