FAMILIAR FOE FAIR SENDS HASSOCKS TO ANOTHER DEFEAT
On a wet week across Sussex, every game in the Southern Combination League Under 23 West Division fell to the weather bar one.
That was at Culver Road. Waterlogged pitches aren’t a problem that ever strikes Sussex County FA Headquarters with it’s pristine 3G surface.
By 10pm on Friday evening, Hassocks were probably cursing that fact as they were traipsing back to Mid Sussex having lost for the third consecutive league game, this time 4-2 away to an impressive Lancing outfit..
There were at least goals for the team in red on this occasion; in their previous two defeats against East Preston and Worthing United, the Robins had failed to hit the back of the net.
Louis Pople notched his first goal in Hassocks colours for seven years while Thomas Jupp opened his account at Under 23 level, milestone goals for different reasons.
But in Alex Fair, Lancing had the most talented player on the pitch by some distance and it was his hat-trick that ultimately delivered all three points along with a goal from George Mitchell-Phillips.
It ended up being an eventful night for Mitchell-Phillips as he also saw red, as did the Robin’s young defender Luke Marshall as both sides ended the game with only 10 men.
Hassocks would have known they were in for a long evening when they received the hosts’ team sheet and saw the name of a familiar foe in Fair on it.
The striker has scored four goals in seven first team appearances for the Lancers this season and two of those came in the space of three second half minutes at the Beacon on August Bank Holiday Monday.
Fair’s intervention that day saw Lancing come from behind to beat Hassocks 2-1 and his contribution here proved to be just as decisive as it won the game for the hosts.
All of Fair’s goals came inside the opening 40 minutes, after which he was withdrawn for Luke Hendy with his evening’s work done.
Fair wasn’t the only familiar name in the home line up either; Matt Berridge started for Lancing having swapped the Beacon for Culver Road at the start of October.
Berridge lasted slightly longer than Fair, completing an hour before he too was replaced with Lancing clearly having one eye on the title challenge at first time level.
Hassocks in contrast were again struggling for numbers. Dan Turner, Jack Gardner and Marshall are all having to pull double duty currently by making up three quarters of the first team’s back four as well as the Under 23s’ while the Robins’ assistant manager Brad Sweetman was among the used substitutes for the second time this season.
That lack of available players forced Dave John into three changes from the side who’d shocked Three Bridges in the Sussex Under 23 Challenge Cup eight days previously.
Marshall, Gardner and Pople were the three faces coming into the starting line up with Lewis Westlake, Joe Bull and Matt Denyer all missing out.
The result leaves Hassocks in seventh spot in the table ahead of a huge game next week against an Arundel side who were one of the four clubs below them in the table.
With back-to-back league and cup games to follow against reigning champions Horsham YMCA, it could be a tough few weeks ahead for the Robins.
Hassocks: Reece Wickwar, Thomas Jupp, Dan Turner, Luke Marshall, Ben O’Leary, Harvey Ransome, Max Donaldson, Jack Gardner, Alfie Loversidge, Louis Pople, George Galbraith-Gibbons.
Subs: Steve Bright, Brad Sweetman.
