HEAVIEST EVER HOME DEFEAT AS HASSOCKS HAMMERED BY TOWN
Records tumbled at the Beacon – and none of them good from the hosts’ point of view as Hassocks were hammered 7-0 by Eastbourne Town.
This was the Robins’ heaviest defeat since they were eliminated from the FA Vase at the second round stage by a vastly superior Ashford United from the Southern Counties East League in November 2014.
Hassocks hadn’t lost a league game by such a margin since going down 7-0 away at Whitehawk 19 years ago – and they’d never lost a home match by seven clear goals in their 38 years as a Southern Combination League club.
The worst thing is nobody could have seen it coming. Just a week earlier, Hassocks had slipped to a 2-1 defeat away at runaway leaders Lancing.
There was more than an air of controversy about that too with the winning goal at Culver Road coming via a Lewis Finney spot kick after the softest penalty award you’ll see this season.
Mark Dalgleish named a relatively strong side and while the visitors may have topped the table for the opening four months of the season, since tasting defeat for the first time against Lancing at the end of November they’d been in patchy form – and had just seen top scorer Dan Perry depart for Saltdean United too. The Beacon’s biggest attendance of the season arrived hoping for an upset; instead, they got a massacre.
Dalgleish made three changes from the side that had pushed Lancing so close seven days previously. Ben O’Leary, captain of the Under 18s treble winning side of two seasons ago, was handed his first start of the campaign at left back with Jack Troak moving forward to cover for the absence of James Littlejohn.
O’Leary’s fellow teenage defender Dan Turner replaced Harry Mills with Kit Tregear coming in for last weekend’s goal scorer Sam Cash in midfield.
There was little sign of the damage that was to come in the first half. Town went into the break just two goals to the good. Aaron Capon – so often a thorn in Hassocks’ side – opened the scoring with 16 minutes played.
The second arrived with just seven minutes of the half remaining via Sam Cole. Cole’s goal was a particularly disappointing one to concede. When playing such quality opponents as Town, you can’t afford to give away simple opportunities from set pieces.
Cole was allowed to run completely unchecked to the near post, meeting a corner delivered from the right with a powerful free header which snuck between O’Leary and the post the young left back had been guarding.
Although rarely threatening Chris Winterton’s goal, Hassocks weren’t out of it yet. As is always the case when one side is 2-0 ahead, the next goal would be crucial; if it went Hassocks’ way, then Town might have begun to loose their composure given their struggles of late. If it went the visitors’ way, then it would be very much game over.
We didn’t have long to find out. Just three minutes to be precise. Large numbers of the crowd were still warming up in the Clubhouse when Zac Attwood made it 3-0, which was the signal for the floodgates to open.
Capon notched his second and Town’s fourth on 58 with the fifth arriving just three minutes later from substitute George Taggart.
A beautiful sunset over the South Downs provided a momentary distraction for home supporters from the horror show unfolding on the pitch in the front of them.
Mother Nature appeared to put Town off their stride and they had to wait nearly 20 minutes to add their sixth, Jack Langford sending Charlie Pugh the wrong way from the penalty spot as the Beacon bathed in an orange glow.
Hassocks needed to navigate the final 11 minutes without conceding in order to avoid an unwanted place in the record books but they couldn’t manage it as another Town substitute made it seven when Tyler Scrafton sent a looping header from a left wing cross over Pugh.
There was at least one positive for Hassocks as Max Donaldson made his senior debut from the bench after a string of impressive performances for the Under 23s.
Otherwise though, this was a day to forget for the Robins, although they can at least take comfort from the fact that they won’t face many sides as good as Town again this season.
Hassocks: Charlie Pugh; Harvey Blake, Dan Turner, Will Broomfield, Ben O’Leary; Dan Stokes, Kit Tregear; Liam Benson, Alex Spinks, Jack Troak; Phil Johnson.
Subs: Max Donaldson, Harvey Enticknap, Luke Marshall (used), Harvey Ransome, Phil Wickwar (unused).
