ROBINS PAY THE PENALTY AGAINST LEADERS LANCING
Lancing may look to be marching towards their first ever Southern Combination League title but Hassocks still gave their illustrious hosts a bit of a scare at Culver Road in the third meeting of the season between the two.
The final score was 2-1 and while the Lancers probably deserved to pick up their 16th win of the campaign from 21 games, there was no shortage of controversy surrounding Lewis Finney’s 37th minute penalty which ended up being the winner.
Even the most ardent of Lancing fans present at Sussex County FA Headquarters had to admit that the award against Hassocks was soft – but when you’re a club struggling near the bottom as the Robins are, it was one of those decisions which always seem to go against you.
Mitch Hewens had reached the by-line and was attempting to cut back towards goal when he went down under minimal contact just inside the area, with referee Robert King pointing to the spot.
There was a lengthy delay whilst Mr King had to fend off vehement Hassocks protests, including sending one visiting player to the sin bin.
The furore though couldn’t upset Finney and he coolly dispatched the penalty, moving onto an astonishing 40 goals for the season in the process.
Lancing had begun the game in impressive fashion, winning two corners inside the opening five minutes. From the second of those, Liam Hendy managed to get something on the ball to turn it towards goal with Charlie Pugh reacted quickly to make the save.
There was little that the young Hassocks goalkeeper could do when Lancing took the lead with 15 minutes played. Ben Connolly’s pace was causing serious problems to the Robins back line – he’d been responsible for earning Lancing their early flurry of corners – and he again escaped the attentions of his marker, this time producing a neat finish which beat Pugh at the near post for 1-0.
Lancing didn’t have too long to celebrate as within two minutes, Hassocks shocked the home crowd by levelling things up.
A mishit clearance from goalkeeper Matt Evans fell straight to James Littlejohn who played a clever switch to Sam Cash. With Lancing’s defence all over the place, Cash had the time he needed to produce a crisp finish hit low and hard past Evans to mark his full senior debut with a goal.
That wasn’t in the hosts’ script and their defence was still at sea minutes later when a long ball over the top sent Phil Johnson racing clear.
Evans came haring out of his goal and that may have proved to be just enough to put Johnson off as his shot dropped agonisingly wide.
Lancing regrouped after that let off and Josh Coupar’s expert pass found Finney who hit a rocket towards the top corner which Pugh somehow kept out with his fingertips. Evans then produced a similarly impressive save from a Littlejohn free kick to prevent Hassocks taking the lead.
Coupar put a couple efforts over including one from a free kick before the penalty incident put Lancing back in front going into the break with Pugh making another good stop from Hewens on the stroke of half time.
Hassocks were content to let Lancing have the ball in the second half, hoping to capitalise on any mistakes by counter attacking swiftly.
Johnson looked to be in the clear on one such occasion, only to be thwarted by a perfectly timed last man tackle from Will Berry.
Chances were few and far between in the last half hour, substitute George Mitchell-Phillips having Lancing’s best opportunity when his effort whistled just over.
Hassocks meanwhile should have made more out of another loose pass from the Lancers in the final five minutes but were unable to force Evans into a save.
Instead, the focus on the journey back to Mid Sussex remained on that penalty decision. 18 places may separate these two sides in the table, but without Finney’s controversial spot kick and Ben Bacon’s missed penalty in the dying seconds of the corresponding fixture back in August, Hassocks may have gone unbeaten against the champions-elect in the league this season.
Something to cling to for Mark Dalgleish and his players in the relegation battle ahead.
Hassocks: Charlie Pugh; Harvey Blake, Will Broomfield, Arni Kublickas, Jack Troak; Alex Spinks, Dan Stokes; James Littlejohn, Sam Cash, Liam Benson; Phil Johnson.
Subs: Luke Marshall, Harvey Enticknap, Jack Gardner, Phil Wickwar (unused).
