HASSOCKS’ WOES CONTINUE AS THEY ARE CUT DOWN BY OAKMEN
For the final 15 minutes of this freezing evening at the Beacon, Hassocks were all over their visitors AFC Uckfield Town.
The Robins forced Phil Hawkins into three first class saves, sent a free kick whistling millimetres over the bar and had two cast iron penalty appeals turned down before eventually been awarded a spot kick at the third time of asking.
The only problem? They were already 4-0 down. It mattered not a jot – except for Hawkins’ clean sheet bonus – that the Oakmen’s goalkeeper kept out Liam Benson’s effort from 12 yards with the final kick of the game as for the first 75 minutes, the Robins simply hadn’t been at the races.
It took Uckfield less than 120 seconds to take the lead. For reasons nobody could explain, the Beacon clubhouse was showing EastEnders on its televisions.
As a result, anybody who dallied their departure outside in order to catch the fallout of the explosive revelations about the paternity of Sharon Mitchell’s unborn child would have missed the opening goal.
Hassocks certainly looked like they had their minds on goings on in Albert Square, Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm… anywhere but the Beacon really as they allowed Matt Barbosa to skip away and deliver a low cross to Liam Baitup, who was free in the box for a tap in.
The Robins managed just two opportunities in the first half. Four minutes after Baitup’s opener and James Littlejohn’s free kick drew a fingertip save. Then on the stroke of half time, Littlejohn collected Alex Spinks’ flick but his curler was held by Hawkins.
Other than that, it was pretty much one way traffic towards the Hassocks goal. Charlie Pugh held a Baitup header at full stretch after another driving run from Barbosa and Pugh then did superbly to tip a curling effort from Bailo Camara around the post.
There was nothing that he could do about Uckfield’s second which arrived on 23 minutes. Barbosa again was the architect as he latched onto a long ball over the top, getting the wrong side of Dan Turner who was unfortunate to clip the live wire winger.
There could be few complaints about Anthony Andrews’ decision to award the penalty however which was perfectly dispatched by Camara.
Hassocks switched their Harveys at half time with Blake replacing Enticknap but there was little time for the change to make an impact before Uckfield sewed things up with their third eight minutes after the restart.
Visiting captain Richie Welch’s free kick from out on the left was allowed to bounce in the Hassocks box and in the ensuing chaos, Turner swung a leg at the ball to slice it over the top of Pugh for an own goal.
Three minutes later and there was a moment of controversy as Bacon and Hawkins collided as both attempted to latch onto Jack Troak’s ball over the top.
Bacon got there first and knocked the ball just wide of the post before he was wiped out, leaving the referee with a straightforward decision – penalty or goal kick? Remarkably, he gave neither and instead settled on a corner.
Perhaps if Hassocks were still in the game there would have been more vehement appeals. They were even further out of it on the hour mark when a long ball over the top left Pugh and Baitup in a footrace to get there first.
Just like Hawkins and Bacon, they too ran into each other but Baitup had the awareness to get up first, collect the loose ball and fire home despite the best efforts of Luke Marshall on the line.
At that stage, you began wonder how many Uckfield were going to rack up. Hassocks could at least take solace them from the fact that no further goals arrived for the visitors; in fact, it should have been the Robins adding to the score line. That they didn’t was because of Hawkins and some beguiling officiating.
Hawkins pulled off a fine double stop, parrying Joe Bull’s low cross and then catching Jamie Hillwood’s effort from the rebound after excellent work from Andy Whittingham.
He then pushed a bouncing distance effort from Bull away and somehow kept out Troak’s powerful chest and volley which came through a crowd of players, not to mention that penalty stop from Benson. Turner also drilled a trademark free kick from 30 yards inches over the bar.
As for the officials, they didn’t seem to mind that Taylor Maddock had taken it upon himself to play as a second goalkeeper in the closing stages.
It was perhaps understandable that they missed Maddock handling Benson’s volley given how quickly the incident unfolded.
Less forgivable was the fact that Maddock then produced an excellent, full length diving punch from a Hillwood corner in full view of the linesman which wasn’t given. It was a piece of officiating nearly as awful as Hassocks’ opening 75 minutes.
Hassocks: Charlie Pugh; Dan Stokes, Dan Turner, Luke Marshall, Andy Whittingham; Alex Spinks, Harvey Enticknap; Jamie Hillwood, James Littlejohn, Jack Troak; Ben Bacon.
Subs: Harvey Blake, Liam Benson, Joe Bull (used), Louis Pople, Phil Johnson (unused).
