TOWN TRIUMPH BUT THIS WAS FAR FROM A CAKEWALK
Sometimes in football, the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story. Hassocks’ visit to Eastbourne Town was one of those occasions.
On the face of it, a 4-1 defeat at the Saffrons for Mark Dalgleish’s side is a result that looks about right to the casual Premier Division observer.
Town are the favourites to lift the Southern Combination title this season and came into the fixture unbeaten. They’d only conceded once in their five previous games.
Hassocks meanwhile had just one league win to their name and that came against the division’s bottom club, East Preston. The current table suggests that it could be a long season ahead for the Robins.
But Hassocks’ league position is another falsity. While they may have been under-cooking in the Premier Division, in the cups Hassocks have been delivering some outstanding displays.
They’ve beaten Langney Wanderers and Meridian Valley Park and took Isthmian League side Chipstead to an FA Cup replay, where only a couple of controversial refereeing decisions denied them giant killing headlines.
Believe it or not, but they brought that cup form to the Sunshine Coast; while the final score suggests an easy day at the office for Town, in reality it was anything but.
What ensured that there was a three-goal difference between the two sides was Town’s ruthlessness in front of goal as the hosts finished with clinical aplomb the chances that came their way.
Aaron Capon scored Town’s first two with the outstanding Dan Perry adding the third and fourth. Perry now has eight for the season already; two more than Hassocks have managed in the Premier Division in total.
It wasn’t like the visitors didn’t have chances. The Robins created four or five good opportunities across the course of the afternoon which unfortunately for them they failed to take.
Perhaps most costly of all, they hit the post early in the second half with the scores level at 1-1. Had that gone in, then things may well have been very different. Town would have been forced to chase the game, which would have left the sort of spaces that Hassocks can so brutally take advantage of with their counter attacking ability.
Clearly, Hassocks are missing the services of last season’s 27-goal top scorer Phil Johnson, who hasn’t been seen since limping off in that win over EP back at the start of August.
No time frame appears to have been put on Johnson’s return, but install a player with his knack of knowing where the goal is into a side who, on their day can threaten even the best teams in the league and the omens look good.
Dalgleish did at least have Jack Rowe-Hurst available here to boost his attacking options after a couple of weeks on the side lines.
That’s timely, as the games are coming thick and fast now. By the time September reaches it’s conclusion, Hassocks will have played twice a week in six of the first eight weeks of the season.
Despite the glut of fixtures caused by the Robins’ aforementioned success in knockout competitions, Dalgleish named a rare unchanged line up from the side that felt so hard done by against Chipstead in midweek.
That showing against the Chips was full of steel and determination but it looked like those attributes had deserted Hassocks as it took Town just seven minutes to take the lead through Capon.
Going behind so early proved to be something of a wake up call to the Robins and they battled their way back into the tie, eventually levelling things up right on the stroke of half time.
Ben Bacon was the man on target, his second goal since returning to the club from Steyning Town a fortnight into the new campaign and the least he deserved for another hardworking showing leading the line.
Town goalkeeper Jason Tibble could then only watch when the Robins rattled the woodwork within five minutes of the restart. Two minutes later and that miss proved to be doubly costly as Capon added his second of the afternoon to put the hosts 2-1 ahead.
Like all good teams, Town turned the screw after that and Perry’s quick-fire double arrived between minutes 64 and 70, ending any Hassocks hopes of returning to Mid Sussex with something to show for their efforts.
Hassocks: Josh Green; Harvey Blake, Dan Jacques, Harry Mills, Andy Whittingham; Will Broomfield, Matt Berridge; Jack Troak, James Littlejohn, Jamie Hillwood; Ben Bacon.
Subs: Jack Rowe-Hurst, Dan Stokes, Joe Bull (used), James Earl (unused).
