LACKLUSTRE HASSOCKS MAULED BY THE MAVERICKS
There was a distinct end of season feel to Hassocks’ penultimate game of 2015-16 as they put in one of their worst performances of the campaign to fall to a 3-0 defeat away at Worthing United.
Again, Hassocks had a threadbare squad with Luke Akehurst and Phil Gault joining the ever growing ranks of the unavailable.
But the players they had available should have been good enough to make a game of it. Instead, it looked as though their minds were already on summer holidays as the Robins arrived in Sunny Worthing guaranteed a 13th place finish. This effectively made it the very definition of a dead rubber.
Yet Phil Wickwar was not hiding his disappointment after the game. “We let ourselves and everybody down today. Yes, there were absentees but that was still nowhere near good enough and I can only say sorry to the travelling support we had today who were absolutely fantastic.”
The Robins fans were in good voice in the early exchanges clearly enjoying their day at the seaside and there was very little sign on the pitch in the early exchanges of the disaster that was about to unfold.
Josh Hawkes went close with an effort from distance and home goalkeeper Fraser Trigwell did well to force Liam Benson wide from a one-on-one.
Trigwell also had to make a decent block from a Dan Stokes shot with Michael Death also going close, curling an effort just wide.
Hassocks’ defending of set pieces earlier in the season could generously be described as being as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
Their recent renaissance since the turn of the year – this was just their fourth league defeat in 17 games in 2016 – had been based partly on eradicating that ability to concede from what felt like every other corner they had to defend.
The Robins were back to their bad old ways here though, 20 minutes having passed when former Robin Pat Rose sent in a delivery that was scrambled home by Craig Nagle. After that, Hassocks were never really at the races.
The heavy rain in the preceding 24 hours and a steep gradient made the pitch at the Robert Albon Memorial Ground hard going.
That became even more the case after the break as it began to cut up, leading to a second 45 minutes that was even more devoid of quality than the first.
There were plenty of niggly little fouls which didn’t help the game ebb and flow either with Rowan Wallis, Tom Barnes and James Oliver all showing aspects of Greco-Roman wrestling skills to halt United attacks.
Trigwell did well to deny Michael Death at full stretch while substitute Ryan John saw the ball taken off him by a splendid last ditch tackle from Jon Elliott as Hassocks struggled to make any headway.
Alex Harris denied Alfie Gritt in a busy second half for the young Hassocks goalkeeper but the safes were out late on as United added two more in the last 15 minutes to make sure of the three points.
Frank Foster played in Aaron Tugnott who slotted past Harris and then the same player scored again from – yes, you’ve guessed it – another Rose corner.
Hassocks: Alex Harris; Bradley Tighe, Ashley Marsh, Rowan Wallis, James Oliver; Bradley Bant, Tom Barnes, Josh Hawkes, Dan Stokes; Michael Death, Liam Benson.
Subs: Ryan John (Benson), Jack Wilkins (Bant), Joe Russell (Stokes), Phil Wickwar (unused).
