CHAMPIONS HEATH PROVE TOO GOOD FOR HASSOCKS
Hassocks played their second pre-season friendly inside of 48 hours when Haywards Heath Town visited the Beacon and although a familiar result, there was at least an improvement in the performance of the Robins.
After creating only two meaningful chances in Thursday night’s 4-0 defeat against Burgess Hill Town in the Ann John Memorial Trophy, Mark Dalgleish’s side did at least get the ball in the back of the net in going down 3-1 to the reigning Southern Combination League champions.
George Brown was the Robins scorer late on. Heath were already leading 3-0 by that point through goals from Callum Saunders, Karly Akehurst and Max Miller.
Heath rattled the bar early on through Akehurst when Alex Harris failed to gather a low cross into the box but they didn’t have long to wait to take the lead, a surging run down the right from Luc Doherty being ended when he went to ground in the box despite Bradley Bant pulling out of the tackle.
Clearly, the famous Jack and Jill sniper was back on Clayton Hill but referee Jonathan Wilks went for it, awarding Heath a penalty.
There were some unsavoury scenes before Saunders could take the resulting spot kick as Spencer Slaughter and Melford Simpson began eyeballing each other, with Simpson shouting “Do you want some?” over and over like an old-school record that had become stuck.
Saunders remained calm despite all that kerfuffle however and he sent Harris the wrong way from the spot with a cool finish.
Nathan Cooper went close to doubling the lead when Harris dropped a header from a Saunders free kick with Cooper succeeding in only flicking the loose ball over the bar.
The woodwork at the West End of the Beacon clearly had something against Akehurst as this time the post denied him with another distance drive just before the break.
Hassocks have had well documented troubles defending set pieces over the last couple of seasons and that inability to deal with corners raised its head again for Heath’s second.
A long delivery to the back post saw Simpson rise highest above Mills, heading the ball back across goal for Akehurst who managed to avoid hitting the frame of the goal this time as his header was placed just out of the reach of Harris.
Hassocks did manage to test Josh Heyburn in the second half but it was largely routine work for the Heath goalkeeper.
The Blues adding their third with three minutes remaining, Simpson easily brushing off the challenge of Adam Dawson before squaring to Miller who hit a shot across Harris and into the bottom corner.
That wasn’t the end of the scoring as the Robins late consolation arrived two minutes after. Heath’s attempts to play an offside trap as Dawson launched a free kick over the top went desperately awry as the ball was squared from out on the right to Brown who beat Heyburn at the second attempt.
