Robins keep top scorer Jonno at the Beacon for next season
That man Phil Johnson will be looking to add to his century of Hassocks goals in 2023-24 after signing for another season with the Robins.
Johnson scored 24 times in 36 appearances in 2021-22, finishing second in the Southern Combination League Premier Division Golden Boot standings to Newhaven forward Alfie Rogers.
That was despite Johnson missing the final seven matches of the campaign after picking up a season-ending injury against Newhaven at the Beacon.
Johnson had been in ridiculous form prior to that game with Dockers. He had plundered 11 goals in 11 games, including his 100th for the Robins in the 1-1 draw at Eastbourne United.
Reaching a century put Johnson in exclusive company, with only Phil Gault, James Laing, Pat Harding, Anthony Hibbert and Robbie Kitchen having reached the landmark in senior football.
Unsurprisingly given his goal scoring exploits, Johnson has made himself a firm fan favourite at the Beacon over three separate spells.
He first came to prominence with a sensational hat-trick as the Under 18s defeated Arundel 3-2 to win the Southern Combination League Youth Cup Final in 2008.
Johnson made his first team debut in that same 2007-08 campaign but three years spent at university meant it was not until the 2011-12 season that he became a first team regular.
He featured sporadically over the next three seasons as further educational studies followed. It was in 2014-15 that Johnson became the Robins’ talisman with 26 goals from 39 appearances.
Johnson helped haul Hassocks away from the relegation zone, picked up a clean sweep of Players’ Player, Managers’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Season awards and earned a move to Isthmian League side Burgess Hill Town.
After a brief spell at Leylands Park, Johnson moved onto Haywards Heath Town and then Horsham YMCA. He scored 53 times in 102 appearances at Gorings Mead, reaching the final of the Peter Bentley League Cup with YM in 2018.
Mark Dalgleish brought Johnson back to the Beacon that summer and his 27 goals from 40 matches fired Hassocks to 12th spot in the Premier Division in 2018-19.
Johnson broke his leg in the second game of the following season. Without his goals, Hassocks struggled and sat second bottom deep in relegation trouble when the 2019-20 campaign was curtailed by Covid-19.
The summer of 2020 saw Johnson move to Crawley Down Gatwick. In two seasons at the Haven, he netted 30 times from 47 appearances.
23 of those came in the 2021-22 campaign, despite Johnson spending most of the second half of the season out injured.
Johnson returned for his third spell with the Robins last summer, a move celebrated both at the Beacon and in the Hassocks Hotel for the benefits it would bring respectively to the Robins’ goal total and the pub’s bar takings.
Already guaranteed a place amongst the greats of Hassocks, the Beacon faithful will now be hoping Johnson can set more scoring records in 2023-24.
