DEATH DOUBLE DEFEATS BILLINGSHURST
The third round of the Sussex RUR Charity Cup beckons for Hassocks after they dispatched Division One outfit Billingshurst in a ridiculously entertaining encounter at the Beacon.
This was the first ever senior meeting between the two sides, and it had everything. Three goals all scored by Hassocks, one apiece disallowed for either side, three red cards, seven further booking and two missed penalties.
Michael Death in particular had an interesting evening. He scored twice and missed both of those spot kicks to be denied a first hat-trick for the Robins.
Josh Hawkes meanwhile was the home player to see red alongside dismissals for Ryan Carse and Jake Chadwick of Billingshurst.
An action packed opening half hour saw plenty of chances for Hassocks. Death, Hawkes, Bradley Bant and Ben Bacon all went close before Hassocks did put the ball in the back of the net only to see it chalked off for a foul on Tom Betts in the Hurst goal.
In between the plethora of chances, Ashley Marsh picked up a quite surreal booking for dissent from referee Tobias Pinesmith when he appeared to actually be berating his own team mates in typical Marsh style rather than the match officials.
Death’s opener arrived with 29 minutes played and Billingshurst could feel hard done by. Nobody in the ground seemed to be able to give a satisfactory answer as to why Hassocks had been awarded a free kick in a dangerous position, but Death didn’t care for the woes of the visitors, driving the set piece into the bottom right hand corner.
Next it was Billingshurst’s turn to see a goal ruled out and this was frankly a terrible decision. Jordan Badger was the hapless Hassocks defender who scored past his own goalkeeper James Broadbent, only for Mr Pinesmith to pull things back and award a free kick to Hurst on the edge of the box just as the ball crossed the goal line.
That free kick was duly chipped harmlessly into the arms of Broadbent while Mr Pinesmith’s unwarranted desire to halt play every five minutes meant a ridiculous amount of added on time at the end of the first half.
Into the second half and there were more cards being flashed than the Royal Mail processes at Christmas before the first two reds arrived just after the hour mark.
Hawkes and Chadwick were the players to go, being sent for an early bath after a coming together that appeared more like a dance from Strictly Come Dancing than anything approaching violent conduct.
The Robins dealt with going down to 10 far better than their visitors and were awarded their first penalty of the game when debutant Elliot Dollner went down in the box, only for Betts to save Death’s spot kick.
Carse then saw red for a heavy foul on James Westlake, leaving the game to be Hassocks’ to kill off. They duly did that when substitute Luke Akehurst rolled in Miles who dropped a shoulder, left his marker for dead and finished with great aplomb.
Westlake was then fouled in the box with Death again stepping up. He picked the same side with the same result as Betts again saved, much to the joy of the visitors bench.
Death did have a last laugh of sorts however, adding his second and the Robins third with five minutes left to play to set up a tie away at Midhurst & Easebourne in round three.
Hassocks: James Broadbent; Harry Mills, Tom Barnes, Jordan Badger, Ashley Marsh; Josh Hawkes; James Westlake, Bradley Bant; Ben Bacon; Nathan Miles, Michael Death.
Subs: Luke Akehurst, Lewis Westlake, Elliot Dollner (used), Radu Avram, Liam Benson (unused).
Starman: Jordan Badger.
