Phil Gault went some of the way to erasing his penalty demons as Hassocks’ talismanic striker scored the only goal of the game from the spot as the Robins won away at Lingfield.
Ten days previously, Gault had fluffed his lines when Chipstead’s Anthony Hall saved his 94th minute penalty to deny the Robins what would’ve been a deserved FA Cup First qualifying round replay away at their Ryman League opponents.
There was no such mistake this time however. Frank Meilack, who had taken over refereeing duties after a first half injury to Theo Parfitt, pointed to the spot with 20 minutes remaining after what looked like a very soft foul by Jay Kamala on Phil Johnson.
Lingfield were quite rightly incensed by the decision but despite the furore that followed, Gault remained cool, calm and collected to beat Dan Burnet from 12 yards and extend Hassocks’ unbeaten start to the league season to six games.
They ended the hosts own unbeaten record in the process. Many people consider the Lingers as dark horses for this season’s Sussex County League title owing to the quality among their ranks, which includes two former professionals in the shape of one-time Brighton captain Nicky Forster and ex-Bradford City and Jamaica international midfielder Jamie Lawrence.
Only Lawrence featured on this occasion, but even so Lingfield’s place among the contenders for the throne marked this out as an extremely impressive three points for Mickey Jewell’s side which lifted them into second place in the table, behind leaders East Preston on goal difference only.
With Mark Price suspended, Jewell recalled Jamie Ingham to his starting line up with Johnson taking the place of Nathan Miles in the only other change from Saturday’s 3-0 FA Vase success over Ringmer. That owed to Miles’ call up to the Sussex Representative squad to face The Army the following day.
Hassocks keeper Jack Simpson will also be on Sussex duty and he will go into it full of confidence with a well earned clean sheet in the bank – his second in the league this season.
There was precious little to write home about in the first half with the major talking point surrounding the injury picked up by Mr Parfitt midway through which led to a lengthy delay in proceedings.
Senior linesman Mr Meliack took up the duties of the man in the middle while a qualified official was sought from the crowd to take over assistant referee duties, leading to a colourful outburst from Lingfield’s ever-entertaining manager Dixie Dean who went on a fantastic rant to anyone in earshot of the home bench that this was the third time Mr Parfitt had pulled up mid-game against his side.
Gault had drawn a decent save from Burnet with a header and the Lingers had a halfhearted penalty appeal turned down which did little to improve Dean’s mood.
His disposition descended even further once Gault had successfully dispatched the penalty but that moment did at least spring the game into life as Lingfield poured forward in such of an equaliser and Hassocks looked to hit their hosts on the counter.
Johnson’s pace was the main source of those breaks forward and he had a chance to double the lead after doing well to work some space in the box but Burnet was equal to the eventual shot.
Lingfield hit the woodwork twice in quick succession in the final 10 minutes, both times from Daryl Coleman as first he smashed a powerful effort against the crossbar and then hit the post. From the rebound, Craig Pitterson could only fire straight at Simpson in what proved to be the last chance of the game.
Hassocks: Jack Simpson; Lee Bryant, Ashley Marsh, Kieran O’Callaghan, Chris Maynard; Anthony Hibbert, Jamie Ingham, Nathan Cooper, Jamie Hillwood; Phil Johnson, Phil Gault.
Subs: Dan Jacques, Aaron Czech (used), Stuart Brown, Nathan Miles, Alex Harris (unused).
