BACON SIZZLES TO SCORE FOUR TIMES AND HAUNT HASSOCKS ON HIS BEACON RETURN
There haven’t been many returns to the Beacon like that of Ben Bacon’s on Bank Holiday Monday for Saltdean United.
The striker, who netted nine times in 24 appearances in the 2016-17 season for the Robins, marked his first return to Hassocks since leaving for Steyning Town at the end of that campaign with a sizzling display as he netted all four goals in his new club’s 4-1 victory.
On this form, United look well placed to put in a genuine tilt for honours this season. For Hassocks, it was a case of coming back to Earth with a bump following back-to-back victories over Arundel and Crawley Down Gatwick.
Mark Dalgleish’s side played well for large parts of the game, but just as when they came up against another one of the title favourites Chichester City three weeks previously, they were undone by disappointing spells at the start and the end of the encounter.
For Hassocks goalkeeper Alex Harris, that ending is one he’ll want to forget especially quickly. He’d been responsible for gifting Bacon the fourth and final goal in the 95th minute when he passed the ball straight to the feet of his former team mate, who in turn lobbed it back over him and into the empty goal.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Harris then took his frustrations out on referee Barry Cox minutes later after the final whistle and received a red card and a subsequent three game ban for his troubles.
Hassocks were missing influential midfielder Spencer Slaughter who is away for another week. In his place, Jack Wilkins was promoted to the starting line up and Liam Benson, scorer of what proved to be the winner against Crawley Down 48 hours earlier, took the place of Joe Bull who was benched.
The game was just 30 seconds old when Bacon put Saltdean ahead and he doubled the advantage with half an hour played, which at least led to the Robins belatedly making a game of it for the next 30 minutes either side of the interval.
Bacon wasn’t the only ex-Hassocks player in the Tigers line up with last seasons number one goalkeeper Nathan Stroomberg also having moved to Hill Park in the summer.
There was nothing that he could do when Phil Johnson gave Hassocks hope of coming back into the game when he halved the deficit just past the hour mark with his fourth goal of the season and his 50th for the club, becoming only the 11th player to manage a half century in senior football for the Robins.
The reprieve was short lived however as less than 10 minutes later, Bacon completed his hat-trick before Harris’ moment of complete madness five minutes into a lengthy period of injury time which followed an ambulance having to be called for a United player.
Hassocks: Alex Harris; Harry Mills, Will Broomfield, Jordan Badger, Harvey Blake; Jack Wilkins, Matt Berridge, Dan Stokes; Phil Johnson, Liam Benson, Jake Lindsey.
Subs: Joe Bull (used).
Starman: Harvey Blake
