COUNTY CUP CRUISING HAS ROBINS REACHING FOR THE RECORD BOOKS
Whilst Hassocks have won plenty of silverware at Under 18 level through the years, the Sussex Bluefin Dennis Probee Youth Cup is a competition in which they have often struggled to make much of an impression.
Might that be about to change in 2020-21? The Young Robins certainly got off to a flying start in the competition as they ran out 18-0 winners in the first round against a very young Rottingdean Village side.
Hassocks came into the tie in goal scoring form having scored six, six and seven so far past Roffey, Steyning Town and Burgess Hill Town to top the early Southern Combination League Under 18 North Division table.
The Robins have a seriously strong squad and Brad Sweetman could make four changes from the side who won local bragging rights against the Hillians last weekend and yet the starting XI looked no weaker for them.
Oscar De Janon Griph, Charlie Jones, Owen Parker and Josh Sprigg were the players who came into the side. Harry Bundy and Archie Messent dropped to the bench with Luke Marshall and Cody Craig missing out altogether.
Josh Sprigg opened the scoring with 12 minutes played, which sparked a bit of a mad rush with Lewis Beebee netting on 16, Alex Crawford on 18 and Beebee again on 19.
Beebee’s brace means that he has hit double figures with the Under 18s season just four games old. If you include the two the he notched on his full debut for the Under 23s in their 4-2 defeat at Broadbridge Heath 72 hours earlier, then the striker is already on 12 in what is shaping up to be a memorable campaign on a personal level.
Beau Howard added Hassocks’ fifth on 27 minutes and Sprigg claimed his second and the Robins’ sixth 60 seconds later. Things went a little mad again in the final 12 minutes before the interval. Crawford made it 7-0 with 33 on the clock, Howard rounded off his brace with Hassocks’ eighth a minute later and Sprigg completed a first half hat-trick on 38.
The final goal of the first half came from Archie Messent, an early introduction from the bench as Sweetman looked to give all his players a decent amount of game time.
That made it 10-0 at half time and Hassocks did not let up in the second half, adding another eight over the course of the next 45 minutes. Rottingdean to their credit stemmed the flow for the first 15 minutes of the second half and they never gave up even when the goals started to flow again once the game went past the hour mark.
The visitors’ task certainly wasn’t made easier when first team regular Alfie Loversidge entered the action. Loversidge struck three of the first four goals of the second half to complete a 16 minute hat-trick, scoring in the 60th, 66th and 76th minutes.
Archie Russell netted in between Loversidge’s second and third to make it 13-0 going into the last 10 minutes. Crawford rounded off his hat-trick on 80 with Russell scoring in the 86th, 88th and 89th minutes to end his morning with a four-goal haul.
The victory had the statisticians reaching for the history books afterwards and although nobody could say for certain, the suspicion is that this might be Hassocks’ biggest ever win at Under 18s level.
The club’s records only go back as far as the 2004-05 season. A 15-0 victory over Newhaven in the 2007-08 season was the previous best post-2004.
Dave John’s squad that season was packed with talent, containing the likes of Phil Johnson, Nathan Miles, Nathan Cooper, Jack Simpson, Adam Williams, Jamie Ingham, Jamie Hillwood, Nick Pitcher and Arni Kublickas, all of whom went onto establish themselves in the first team at the Beacon.
In the Class of 2021 can go onto have as much success as that team – who lifted the Southern Combination Youth League Cup at the end of the campaign – then this could be a very good year for the Robins.
Hassocks: Jayden Dunkley, Oscar De Janon Griph, Alex Crawford, Owen Parker, Kobe Dersley, Dan Llewellyn, Charlie Jones, Archie Russell, Beau Howard, Josh Sprigg, Lewis Beebee.
Subs: Harry Bundy, Louis Thwaites, Archie Messent, Fraser Mears, Alfie Loversidge (used).
