Stalwart defender will play for the Robins in an eighth season
Another key player from the 2021-22 Southern Combination League season has committed to Hassocks for the next campaign with Bradley Tighe signing on for another year at the Beacon.
Tighe played a crucial role in helping the Robins pull away from the relegation battle last time out. His burgeoning partnership with Dan Turner at the heart of the Hassocks defence was the first time for several seasons that the Robins have had a settled centre back pairing.
The result was six clean sheets from the final 13 games of the campaign. Tighe’s contribution was enough to see him chosen as Managers’ Player of the Year, whilst Turner picked up the double of Players’ Player and Supporters’ Player at the End of Season awards.
Tighe came through the youth ranks at the Beacon, making his first team debut as a 17-year-old in the 2014-15 season under Dave John.
He made the right back position his own when Mark Dalgleish and Phil Wickwar took over from John in December that year, helping Hassocks to complete the great escape from relegation which followed.
Tighe won Players’ Player of the Season in 2015-16. In 2016-17, he combined his first team duties with regular appearances for the Under 21s.
Manager Nigel Pearce afforded him a little more freedom in the development side, and he popped up with two goals from 13 appearances as Hassocks finished third in the Under 21s East Division.
After 74 first team appearances, Tighe moved to Ringmer in the summer of 2017. The Blues unfortunately folded at the end of the 2017-18 campaign, with Tighe next joining Lancing.
His time at Culver Road was brief, Dalgleish bringing him back to the Beacon in November 2018. Tighe made 27 appearances for Hassocks in the 2018-19 season, taking his career total onto 97 games.
Although he remained a Robin for the start of 2019-20, Tighe did not make a first team appearance before moving to Seaford Town.
He spent the next 18 months at the Crouch before returning to Hassocks for a third time during lockdown in 2021. Tighe went onto play for the Robins in their Supplementary Shield campaign at the end of the 2020-21 season, passing a century of appearances for the club in the process.
Hassocks only lost twice in six games in that competition with Tighe in the side. That highlighted the difference he can make and his absence was keenly felt at the start of last season, when injury ruled him out and the Robins leaked goals at an alarming rate in the opening few months.
Tighe’s return led to that aforementioned improved defensive record and saw him handed the vice captaincy. He is the 41st youth team product to play 100 times for Hassocks and can look forward to passing the 150 mark in the new campaign – and who knows, he might even score his first senior goal!
