TON UP FOR GAULT AS ROBINS BEAT LEADERS
Phil Gault broke the 100-goal barrier for Hassocks as his brace helped the Robins inflict a first home league defeat of the season on Sussex County Division One leaders East Preston at the Lashmar.
Gault bought up his century with the opener midway through the first half and three minutes later he doubled the advantage.
The scoring wasn’t done there either, Elliott Butler netting his first of the season to round off a performance that was easily Hassocks’ best of the campaign so far.
Their hosts had lost only once coming into the tie, a shock 1-0 reversal against the Robins’ Mid Sussex rivals St Francis Rangers at Colwell Road back in October, yet the Robins blew them away to take a convincing and deserved three points that leaves them just six points behind the new leaders Peacehaven & Telscombe.
That is quite the turnaround given the way that Mickey Jewell’s side started the season when they won just once in their opening five games and failed to score in four of them.
Jewell for his part wasn’t getting carried away, but with a squad that you could argue is even stronger than the one which secured Hassocks’ highest ever finish of fourth last season, it will come as little surprise to hear the Robins being mentioned in some quarters as potential dark horses for the title.
Hassocks made just one change from the side that had comprehensively booked a spot in the Sussex Senior Cup Third Round on Tuesday night with a 5-1 thrashing of Storrington, captain Stuart Faith returning to the heart of the Robins defence.
That saw Lee Bryant shuffle across from centre back to left back with Butler dropping down to the bench despite impressing in four consecutive starts since returning from the injury that ruled him out for virtually all of last season.
With EP averaging just shy of three goals a game so far, Hassocks’ defence would’ve been expecting the sternest of tests, so it says much for the performances of Bryant, Faith, Ashley Marsh and Rob South that they came away with a clean sheet.
It was also an encouraging league debut for Simon Lehkyj in goal. The new signing from Three Bridges had a quiet evening on his first start at Storrington four days previously but he showed his quality here against a dangerous attacking line up.
Neither side could land a blow on the other in the first half and they turned around locked at 0-0 as a result.
Gault had had an unusually quiet game in that Senior Cup win in midweek on what was his 200th appearance for the club and it was a similar story in the opening 45 minutes until he sparked into life after the break.
His first came when he fired through a crowd during a goalmouth scramble and saw him become only the fifth player after James Laing, Pat Harding, Robbie Kitchen and Anthony Hibbert to hit three figures.
His second was a trademark header as he rose unmarked at the far post to convert a cross from James Westlake our on the right.
Butler put the result beyond doubt with seven minutes remaining, a typically robust challenge from the hard-working Dan Smith winning back possession for the Robins to send Butler clear and he made no mistake with the one-on-one chance.
Hassocks: Simon Lehykj; Rob South, Ashley Marsh, Stuart Faith, Lee Bryant; James Westlake, Anthony Hibbert, Spencer Slaughter, Jamie Weston; Phil Gault, Dan Smith.
Subs: Butler, Miles, O’Callaghan (used), Davess (unused).
