19-goal striker looking to build on the most prolific season of his career
After the most prolific season of his Hassocks career so far, Liam Benson is staying at the Beacon for the 2023-24 campaign.
Benson hit 19 goals last time out from 42 appearances, making it to a half century for the Robins in the process. That form was enough to see him named by James Westlake as Manager’s Player of the Season.
The striker came through the ranks at Hassocks, scoring 22 times in 27 games for the Under 18s as they won the Southern Combination Youth League Central Division title in 2013-14.
Mickey Jewell gave Benson his senior debut that the same season as a substitute in a 1-0 win over Dorking Wanderers.
It would not be until the 2016-17 when Benson became established as a first team regular. He scored 13 times in 30 matches for the Reserves in 2014-15, becoming even more prolific when Under 21s football was introduced in 2015-16.
Five goals from nine appearances followed in that first Under 21s campaign before going at nearly a goal a game in 2016-17 with 15 in 16 matches.
That form proved impossible to ignore and once Mark Dalgleish and Phil Wickwar gave him an opportunity in the senior side, Benson duly took it with 29 appearances resulting in 10 goals.
The undoubted highlight was a superb double as Hassocks shocked eventual champions Shoreham by hammering the Musselmen 4-1 in February 2017.
Benson racked up seven goals from 22 matches at the start of the 2017-18 season but with the Robins struggling to pull away from the bottom three, he accepted an offer to join Lancing.
After eight months at Culver Road, Benson returned to Hassocks for a second spell at the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign. He played more times than any other Robin that season, making 44 appearances and scoring 13 times.
Benson moved to Steyning Town in the summer of 2019 but his stay at the Shooting Field was a short one and he was soon back at Hassocks for a third spell.
In what proved to be a very difficult campaign which saw the Robins in the bottom two when the 2019-20 season was curtailed by Covid-19, Benson scored once from 23 matches.
He was one of three Hassocks players to move to Peacehaven & Telscombe ahead of the 2020-21 campaign, along with Alex Spinks and Harry Mills.
Benson played 25 times for the Tye over the next one-and-a-half seasons, joining Haywards Heath Town midway through 2021-22 before ending the campaign at Saltdean United.
Westlake brought him back to Hassocks for a fourth spell last summer and that has proven a shrewd move. As well as those 19 goals and the Manager’s Player of the Season award, Benson was also named Player of the Month in both November and December.
