Hassocks Under 23s continued their perfect response to the setback of their first defeat of the season against Selsey a fortnight ago as they made it two wins in two games with 11 goals scored after hammering Mile Oak.
Last Thursday, the Robins made safe progress in the Sussex Under 23 Challenge Cup by defeating Hailsham Town 6-0 in the first round at the Beacon.
This time, it was a 5-0 home win over the West Division’s bottom club, a result which takes Nigel Pearce’s side back to the top of the table on goal difference from Horsham YMCA after YM were held 1-1 away at Southwick.
This was the second meeting between these two in the space of three weeks. In the first at Mile Oak Rec, Hassocks had been made to work hard for all three points with goals in the final 15 minutes from Connor Bradley and James Littlejohn securing a 4-2 win.
It was a much more comfortable evening on this occasion as Josh Green and his defence picked up back-to-back clean sheets for the first time in a year, a small consolation for Green given that he is currently suspended from first team football after a harsh sending off against Crawley Down Gatwick at the start of the month.
Pearce made two changes from the side that had defeated the Stringers seven days previously as Jake Lane returned to the starting line up in place of Will Glenn and Kieran Wells came in for James Oliver. Both Glenn and Oliver were on the bench.
It took just 15 minutes for Joe Russell to open the scoring, capping a good week for the midfielder in which he finished the victory over Hailsham with the captains armband after Ellis Common’s substitution and then made his first appearance of the season for the front side in the weekend defeat to Lingfield.
An unfortunate own goal from Oak doubled the advantage around 10 minutes before the break. That left Hassocks in a relatively safe position going into half time and they effectively killed the game off seven minutes after the restart by grabbing a third.
Max Willcox was the scorer and eight minutes later the striker had the Robins’ fourth of the evening and his second, making it six goals in his past two appearances as last season’s top scorer looks to have put the injury problems that blighted the early part of his campaign this time around firmly behind him.
Harvey Enticknap rounded things off with the fifth with 20 minutes to play. The midfielder clearly likes playing against Oak as his only other goal for the club came in the previous meeting between the two.
With the game sewn up, Hassocks were able to give a decent amount of game time to all three of their substitutes which included a debut for 17-year-old Tristan Hayes who has been so impressive in notching 10 goals in first five games for the Under 18s.
Hassocks: Josh Green, Jake Lane, Kieran Wells, Louie Derham, Ben Jonas, Joe Russell, Connor Bradley, Harvey Enticknap, Ellis Common, Max Willcox, James Littlejohn.
Subs: James Oliver, Will Glenn, Tristan Hayes (used).
