CONTROVERSIAL CORNER DENIES ROBINS SHARE OF THE SPOILS
After five postponements in a row and 25 days without a game, Hassocks were finally able to resume their battle against relegation thanks to some clever thinking from Lingfield.
The hosts switched the game from their Godstone Road home to the 3G surface at Steyning Town’s Shooting Field. That meant that whatever happened, a waterlogged pitch wasn’t going to stand in the way of getting this one played.
It was smart from the Lingers. Which is less than can be said for the performance of referee Matthew Goldsmith, who helped Lingfield pick up three points with an atrocious piece of second half decision making.
The moment in question came on the hour mark. Lingfield were 2-1 ahead when an attack on the Hassocks goal fizzled out to nothing.
Both sides retreated from the Robins’ box for the subsequent goal kick, only for Mr Goldsmith to ignore everything that the players reaction was telling him and award a corner.
Hassocks were incandescent with rage and their mood wasn’t improved when the ball was swung over from the right and Kerran Boylan stole in at the near post to head home, making it 3-1.
James Littlejohn’s stonking volley in stoppage time saw it end 3-2, leaving the Robins to feel even more aggrieved that Mr Goldsmith had handed Lingfield their winning goal.
On paper at least, this looked like a big game in the dogfight at the bottom of the Premier Division table. Lingfield began the afternoon just two places and six points ahead of Hassocks in the table.
That’s something of a false position however. The Lingers haven’t played a home fixture at Godstone Road since the end of October – Whyteleafe’s Church Road ground and Horsham’s Camping World Stadium having also provided temporary haven – and have up to seven games in hand on other sides in the division.
Win all of those and Lingfield could push for a top 10 finish. Not that Hassocks had read the script as they took the lead with 15 minutes on the clock.
Three successive corners came in from the right from Lewis Westlake, the first resulting in a Dan Turner header which was palmed over the bar by Daniel Nairne and the second seeing Nairne scramble an in-swinger around the post when it looked like it might curl in.
There was nothing Nairne could do from the third corner, Turner again meeting Westlake’s delivery with a towering header which this time had the net bulging.
Lingfield barely threatened until the half hour mark when Tyler Cox escaped to the by-line. His low cross presented Boylan with an open goal until Jack Troak appeared from nowhere to make a last ditch tackle.
Jamie Bakhit then had an effort turned away by the head of Will Broomfield. Harvey Blake hacked an effort from the resulting corner off the line.
Another Lingfield corner caught Hassocks napping as the ball was drilled low to the edge of the box and nobody in red reacted quickly enough to track the run of Cox.
Cox fired a shot through a crowd of players but Phil Wickwar rolled back the years to 1995 to get down low and brilliantly turn the ball around the post.
Wickwar was asked to step in late in the day after a goalkeeping crisis ripped through Mark Dalgleish’s side. In doing so, he achieved the remarkable feat of playing senior football for Hassocks in four different decades and at the age of 45, overtakes Mickey Turner as the Robins’ oldest ever first team player.
Wickwar was unable to prevent Lingfield’s first goal which arrived with less than 10 seconds of the first half remaining, Sammy Clements volleying in off the bar just minutes after Dan Stokes hit a post at the other end.
Hassocks started the second half the better and only a superb last ditch tackle from Corbin Turner stopped Littlejohn getting a shot away after Liam Benson’s through ball had split the Lingfield defence.
Blake fizzed a low cross in which nobody could connect with before Lingfield took the lead on 57, Bakhit bringing a cross under control with his back to goal, rolling off a challenge and firing into the corner.
A combination of goalkeeper and man on the line prevented Turner equalising with another powerful header from a Westlake corner before Mr Goldsmith took centre stage to gift Lingfield their third.
He infuriated Hassocks further when Corbin Turner went sliding in on Blake in the box but a penalty there would have been a soft award despite the appeals of the visitors.
The Robins continued to push and Turner again had a header blocked before substitute Phil Johnson sprung the offside trap to collect a clipped ball from Blake but his low effort was saved by Nairne.
Littlejohn’s stunning strike came from a full 30 yards but with the game already in stoppage time, it proved to be too little too late .
Hassocks: Phil Wickwar; Harvey Blake, Dan Turner, Dan Jacques, Jack Troak; Will Broomfield, Lewis Westlake; Dan Stokes, Harvey Enticknap, Liam Benson; James Littlejohn.
Subs: Phil Johnson, George Galbraith-Gibbons (used).
