CLASSY GOLDS UNDERLINE TITLE CREDENTIALS BY HITTING HASSOCKS FOR SIX
If the visit of Littlehampton Town to the Beacon was anything to go by, then the Sussex County League title will be heading to the Sportsfield come the end of the season.
Five second half goals secured a 6-1 victory for the Golds – the exact same hammering they had dished out to Hassocks in the December meeting of the sides down on the Arun coast. That defeat proved to be the final game of Dave John’s third spell in charge of the Robins.
Hassocks have improved markedly in the intervening three months under Mark Dalgleish and Phil Wickwar to pull six points clear of the relegation zone, but they were deservedly well beaten here.
It would have been a tough ask to take anything from this game even with a full a strength squad available.
To be without Mark Price, Dan Jacques, Ellis Common, Ryan Collins and the suspended Ashley Marsh added to the difficulty of an already daunting task.
Having said that, Hassocks were well in the game at half time. Bradley Bant hit a stunning distance strike midway through the opening 45 minutes to cancel out a Joe Shelley header which had given Littlehampton the lead inside of 120 seconds.
Another big crowd at the Beacon could have been forgiven for fearing the worse after Shelley struck so early.
The Robins though defended really well with Tom Barnes and Rowan Wallis in particular impressing at the heart of the Hassocks defence – there was certainly no sign of what was about to occur after the break.
Miles did not appear for the second half as the back trouble which has plagued his season reared its ugly head again.
Tom Davess came on in place of Miles, taking over wide on the left with Jamie Hillwood pushed up front alongside Phil Johnson.
Even before Miles had been withdrawn, the feeling in the Clubhouse during the interval amongst the home faithful was that their side would be in trouble if Littlehampton went through the additional gears everyone knew them to possess.
The Golds did not take long to set about that task. Having scored so early in the first half, Littlehampton repeated the trick at the beginning of the second.
George Landais was the scorer, making it 2-1 to the visitors. Whereas Hassocks steadied themselves and came back after falling behind initially, this time the floodgates opened.
There was an element of fortune to the Golds’ third which arrived five minutes after Landais had put them back into the lead.
A Darren Boswell cross from the left took a massive deflection off young Bradley Tighe to defy George Willett. So big was the redirect off Tighe that it was registered as an own goal rather than belonging to Boswell.
The final three goals all came in the last 20 minutes. Former St Francis Rangers man Kieron Pamment rivalled Bant’s earlier equaliser in the breath taking stakes with a brilliant effort from distance which had Willett clutching at air.
Scott Packer got onto the scoresheet with the fifth before Landais rounded things off with his second and Littlehampton’s sixth of the afternoon.
Wickwar said afterwards that it was a disappointing result, but at the same time he accepted his team had been beaten by opponents he described as easily the best visitors to the Beacon in the bread and butter of County League football this season.
Hassocks: George Willett; Bradley Tighe, Tom Barnes, Rowan Wallis, Luke Pawson; Dan Stokes, Nick Pitcher, Bradley Bant, Jamie Hillwood; Nathan Miles, Phil Johnson.
Subs: Tom Davess (Miles 45), Liam Benson (Pitcher 75), Phil Wickwar (unused)
