ROBINS HAVE THEIR WINGS CLIPPED BY LOBSTERS
It was an afternoon in which nothing seemed to go right for Hassocks as they went down to a 3-1 defeat away at promotion hopefuls Redhill.
Manager Mickey Jewell was absent from the dugout with illness for the third game running, leaving assistant boss Mark Dalgleish to take charge of the side.
His cause wasn’t helped by the Robins being without two of their most influential players, midfielder Kieran O’Callaghan and top scorer Phil Gault both being absent for the trip to Kiln Brow.
These two sides had already met in this part of Surrey once this season, Hassocks picking up a fine 2-0 win two months previously in the John O’Hara League Cup, but the Lobsters have improved remarkably since then and look like they could be one of the few teams to give Peacehaven & Telscombe a run in the title race.
They showed their promotion credentials almost from the first whistle and by full time, Hassocks were indebted to goalkeeper Simon Lehkyj for a string of fine saves which not only kept the score down, but even gave the Robins the chance of nicking what would have been an undeserved draw until the tie was decided late on.
Lehkyj was quick off his line to deny Josh Bennett twice in the opening stages before Redhill were awarded a controversial penalty just after the half hour mark.
A long ball over the top looked like it had been over hit for Gavin Gordon and when it became apparent that Gordon was not going to get there before Lehykj, the home striker threw himself to the ground under minimal contact outside the box.
Remarkably, referee Chris Bull not only deemed it to be a foul, but he also decreed it had taken place inside the area, giving Gordon the opportunity to dust himself down and send Lehyky the wrong way from the spot.
In fairness to Redhill, their dominance did deserve the lead no matter the manner in which they’d been handed and it was somewhat out of the blue when Hassocks equalised on the stroke of half time.
In the absence of Gault, Nathan Miles was asked to plough a lone furrow up front and despite the lack of support from his team mates, he summoned up a moment of sheer magic to hit a 30-yard effort that flew over home goalkeeper Chris Duffy after some neat interplay between Anthony Hibbert and Nathan Cooper in midfield.
Hassocks were below par again for the first 15 minutes of the second half, not helped by a nasty challenge on Lee Bryant which brought a premature end to the defenders afternoon, and they were made to pay when Chris Gregson made it 2-1 on the hour.
It was a poor goal to concede from a defensive point of view, Gregson being allowed far too much space at the far post to control and finish after a corner had only been partially cleared.
Dalgleish reacted to that by pushing Cooper further forward to support Miles and Hassocks came into the game more as a result. They nearly had a second equaliser when Duffy fumbled and Spencer Slaughter capitalised by chipping him but home defender John Trotter did brilliantly to get back and clear off the line.
There were other opportunities to snatch a point before Redhill belatedly made the game safe with two minutes remaining. Hassocks had committed plenty of bodies forward at that point in the search for a leveler and the Lobsters took full advantage of the extra space available to them at the other end, Gregson leading a sweeping counter attack down the left which found Gordon only for Lehkyj to bring the striker down in the box.
There could be no complaints about the award of this one, and again Gordon finished neatly from the spot for his second and Redhill’s third of the afternoon.
Hassocks: Simon Lehykj; Rob South, Ashley Marsh, Stuart Faith, Lee Bryant; James Westlake, Anthony Hibbert, Spencer Slaughter, Nathan Cooper, Jamie Weston; Nathan Miles.
Subs: Elliott Butler (Bryant), Tom Davess (Westlake), Luke Pawson, Rowan Wallis, Reece Wickwar (unused).
Starman: Nathan Miles. Worked tirelessly up front with little support for long periods.
