Back to back wins gave Hassocks the best possible start to 2019 as they kicked off the new year with victories over East Preston and Horsham YMCA.
The Robins final game of 2018 had seen them pick up three points with a gritty 1-0 success away at Shoreham. They began the new year as they’d finished the old, a similar sort of performance against Bob Paine’s young EP side delivering the same result as at Middle Road a week previously.
Phil Johnson scored the only goal of the game 10 minutes before half time when he struck for the 16th time this season. Bradley Tighe’s decision to take a quick throw out on the right appeared to be a questionable one when it looked to have been cut out by Lewis Jenkins.
The EP defender’s clearance was poor though and he only succeeded in giving the ball to James Littlejohn who burst forward at speed before fizzing a low cross into the box.
Johnson meanwhile had timed his run to perfection, arriving front and centre of the goal before using his knee in a brilliant piece of improvisation to send the ball past George Bentley in the visitor’s goal to secure the three points.
A week later and the Robins delivered one of their best performances of the season to hammer title chasing Horsham YMCA 5-3 at the Beacon.
Peter Buckland’s side arrived sitting pretty in third place in the Premier Division table but they had no answer to a devastating display of counter attacking football from Hassocks that saw the hosts go into the break with a 4-0 lead.
Phil Johnson was the main architect of YM’s downfall, scoring twice against his former club and shortly after Buckland had put in a seven day approach to take him back to Gorings Mead.
The Hassocks captain opened the scoring with 10 minutes played, winning and converting a penalty and Will Broomfield made it 2-0 on the half hour mark with his first goal for the club, showing quick footwork to get a long free kick delivered into the YM box under control and create the space needed to beat Aaron Jeal.
The Robins were rocking now and three minutes later they had a third, a sweeping counter attacking move filled with pace and precision going through Liam Benson and James Littlejohn before Johnson applied the finish from the edge of the box.
YM lost their discipline a little after that and began conceding a number of cheap and unnecessary free kicks and it was from one such instance that Hassocks’ fourth arrived on the stroke of halftime.
Johnson’s pace and ambition again caused panic in the YM defence and when he was brought down some 20 yards from goal, Littlejohn stepped up and bent a low free kick through the wall and into the far corner.
Hassocks knew that their opponents would come out fighting in the second half. Guy Harding pulled one back with 64 minutes on the clock but any hopes of a comeback were extinguished pretty quickly as within two minutes, Benson was racing clear to make it 5-1.
The Robins were relatively comfortable after that right up until what turned out to be an action packed nine minutes of time added on which saw Harding score his and YM’s second, Jack Hartley grab a third for the visitors and Donaghey head for an early bath for two petty yellow cards after his frustrations got the better of him.
That made it three successive victories for Hassocks but there wasn’t too much time to bask in the glory as three days later they were well beaten 2-1 by AFC Uckfield Town.
Goals either side of half time from Dee Okojie and Taylor Maddock pick the Oakmen in control with Johnson netting a consolation from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of injury time.
A 2-0 win away at bottom side Eastbourne United followed four days later. United were a lot better than their lowly league position suggested with their three Premier Division wins all having come in the four weeks leading up to the Robins’ trip to the Oval.
Littlejohn opened the scoring in the first half with a goal of the highest quality. There didn’t seem much on when the young striker led a quickfire break but he’d spotted United goalkeeper Jordan Hawkins ever-so-slightly out of position and despite the ball bouncing awkwardly on a difficult surface, Littlejohn managed to get it under control before hitting an effort from a full 30 yard.
The result was stunning, the ball rising over Hawkins head before dipping perfectly into the far corner of the goal to draw the applause of the home faithful as well as the travelling Hassocks contingent.
Hassocks’ second of the afternoon arrived with around 15 minutes remaining. Johnson started the move, releasing Spencer Slaughter down the right from where he delivered a lovely cross which Johnson met with an inch-perfect finish in off the post after continuing his run into the box.
That gave Hassocks their sixth consecutive win at the Oval against United, a run stretching back eight years to 2010 when United were reigning champions.
Less fruitful have been games with Arundel and so it proved once again in January’s final fixture. Second half goals from Benjamin Gray and Harry Russell gave the Mullets a big three points in a match played out in hurricane strength winds.
Fan favourite Dan Jacques was voted as the Robins’ Player of the Month ahead of Johnson and Benson, much to the delight of the regulars in the Maurice Boxall Stand. It was the first of many awards for Jacques over the remainder of the second half of the season.
The Under 23s played just once in January when they made the trip to Broadbridge Heath, picking up a 3-1 win from the Leisure Centre.
Littlejohn gave Nigel Pearce’s side the lead two minutes before the break but virtually straight from kick off, Heath went up the other end and equalised through Dane Riecker.
Harvey Enticknap put the Robins back into the lead five minutes after the restart and super sub George Galbraith-Gibbons wrapped up the win in the 88th minute with his fifth goal of the season from the bench.
After a rocky finish to 2018, the Under 18s went through January unbeaten with a 5-1 win over Broadbridge Heath, a 1-1 draw away at Upper Beeding and a 9-0 victory against Rottingdean Village, their biggest of the campaign.
The Ladies magnificent season continued with three more big wins, all recorded without conceding a goal. They beat Wandgas and Montpelier Villa 4-0 and 5-0 respectively in South East Counties Women’s League Division East but their best result came in the Sussex Women’s Trophy Semi Final.
A crushing 7-0 win over Montpelier Villa put the Robins into the County Cup final for the first time in the club’s history. Billie Philpott netted a hat-trick with Katherine Chappell, Kelly Rushworth and Tallie Bright also on target as Martin Lee’s side set up a meeting with local rivals Burgess Hill Town in the final.
