SEVEN GOAL THRILLER AS ROBINS PUSH HEATH CLOSE
Hassocks and Haywards Heath Town have met six times in the past three seasons, and on every occasion the Robins have been well beaten.
They’ve scored just three goals against their Mid Sussex rivals while conceding 21 along the way in fixtures in the Southern Combination Premier Division, Sussex RUR Charity Cup and one previous friendly.
Mark Dalgleish’s side can take heart then from this meeting at the Beacon, in which Heath only secured a 4-3 success in the 89th minute through Lekan Osideko’s late winner.
That made two games in the space of 48 hours in which Isthmian League sides have required last minute goals to see off a plucky Hassocks performance, coming as it did after the Robins’ 3-2 Ann John Memorial Trophy defeat to Burgess Hill Town.
The fact that Hassocks have given two of the better sides from a division above a real test augurs well for the season ahead.
Not that it looked like such a close result would be on the cards in the opening exchanges as Heath sauntered into a 2-0 lead inside of 10 minutes.
Of those aforementioned 21 goals that Heath have scored against Hassocks, six of them have come from Trevor McCreadie and it took him just five minutes to open the scoring on this occasion.
The Robins were their own worst enemy in the build up to the goal as they gifted possession to McCreadie, but the striker still had plenty to do to fire home past Josh Green from the angle.
Former Hassocks man Nathan Cooper added the second four minutes later, rising to power home a trademark header after finding some space in the box.
At that point, it looked like Heath could end up with a cricket score but Hassocks regrouped and pulled one back on 21 minutes.
It was easily the goal of the game as well, James Littlejohn showcasing his prowess from dead ball situations by curling an effort over the wall and past Luke Glover in the Heath goal from 25 yards out.
Heath dominated possession after that but were lacking an end product until Nico Cotton took it upon himself to re-establish a two-goal lead for the visitors.
The former Lewes man struck seven minutes before half time, cutting in from the left flank and beating two Hassocks defenders before finish past Green from just inside the box.
With this being the hottest UK day on record, both sides rang the changes at the break and it was Hassocks who started the second half the better side.
They scored their second of the evening just six minutes after the restart with a goal that was extremely similar to Heath’s opener.
It involved some suspect defending from the visitors’ back line, which Dan Stokes was on hand to take full advantage of by beating Glover.
Heath striker Andrew Dalhouse proved to be a real handful in the second half and without the interventions of Green and his back four, the big striker could probably have had a hat-trick.
Hassocks looked as though they had punished the fact that he didn’t when they equalised with just three minutes remaining, Antwon McKenzie conceding a penalty which Phil Johnson duly dispatched for 3-3.
The Robins were level for all of two minutes though before Osideko struck what proved to be the winner. He made time and space in the box and fired low and hard into the bottom corner to maintain Heath’s perfect record against the Robins—although it was nowhere near as easy as it has been in the past.
