The dates have been announced for Hassocks’ Sussex Senior Cup first round trip to Arundel and the Peter Bentley League Cup second round meeting with Langney Wanderers.
The Robins will travel to Mill Road on Tuesday 1st October with a 7.45pm kick off. Wanderers meanwhile come to the Beacon 11 days later on Saturday 12th October, kick off at 3pm.
That clash with Langney had originally been due to take place on September 3rd, but had to be moved due to Hassocks taking Isthmian League South Central side Chipstead to an FA Cup Preliminary Qualifying replay.
Ironically, it was Wanderers who Hassocks beat in the previous round to set up the tie with the Chips. Goals from Jack Rowe-Hurst and Matt Berridge gave the Robins a 2-0 win at the Beacon back in August.
Combined with this Peter Bentley Cup fixture, it means that Hassocks will face Langney four times this season. The next of those meetings comes a week before the Cup clash as the Robins go to Priory Lane for a Premier Division meeting on Saturday 5th October.
Three games in the first two months of the season is in stark contrast to what has gone before. Until Langney’s promotion to the top flight for the 2018-19 campaign, the two sides had never met in senior football. By the time Kenny McCreadie brings his side back to the Beacon, there’ll be extremely familiar foes.
That’s always been the case with Arundel. There aren’t many clubs on the Southern Combination League circuit that Hassocks have faced as often as the Mullets, with 49 previous meetings between the two. And meeting number 50 will be the first time that we’ve crossed swords in the Sussex Senior Cup.
44 of the fixtures have taken place in the Premier Division, a result of Hassocks being the longest serving member of the top flight having played there since 1994. Arundel’s own unbroken run stretching back to 2000 only came to an end with relegation at the end of last season.
That could have made 2019-20 the first season for 20 years in which Hassocks and the Mullets hadn’t met until the intervention of the Senior Cup.
They’ll now do battle at Mill Road next Tuesday night and with Arundel flying in Division One and the Robins struggling in the Premier Division, the hosts may well fancy their chance of an upset.
