Youth team product will be hoping to pass 100 appearances for Hassocks in the new season
Hassocks forward Alfie Loversidge will be looking forward to a fourth season as a first team regular with the Robins after committing himself to the club for 2023-24.
The versatile youth team product has made 79 appearances for Hassocks so far across a variety of positions including as a centre forward, number 10, central midfielder and down both flanks.
Loversidge signed for Hassocks Under 18s in 2018 and over the next three seasons, he played 30 times and contributed five goals for the Young Robins.
Hassocks finished runners up in the Southern Combination League Under 18 North Division in Loversidge’s first campaign with the club and were in title contention when both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 were brought to a halt by Covid-19.
Mark Dalgleish gave Loversidge his senior debut as a 17-year-old in 2019. Further opportunities came his way under Dave John in 2020-21, when he made seven starts and 10 substitute appearances.
Loversidge made a strong impression that year for his fearless approach to first team football in the middle of the park against opponents whose answer to his skill and speed was to kick him to the ground.
He scored his first senior goal in a 6-2 defeat at Eastbourne Town and added another in April’s Supplementary Shield competition when Hassocks won 4-2 at Crawley Down Gatwick.
2021-22 proved to be a breakthrough season. Loversidge played 41 appearances and scored nine times after being pushed further forward by head coach Brad Sweetman, finishing third in the Robins golden boot race behind Jack Troak and Josh Short.
His redeployment as a striker proved to be one of the catalysts for Hassocks to pull clear of the relegation battle after a goal shy opening two months of the campaign.
Included in Loversidge’s haul was a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over AFC Varndeanians, making him the first teenager to score a three goals in a game for the Robins since Matt Amos 15 years earlier.
Loversidge was restricted to just 11 starts and seven runouts from the bench last season after being ruled out for five months with an injury picked up on the opening day at Peacehaven & Telscombe.
He returned to action from January onwards with a series of good performances as James Westlake eased him back in, now as a winger.
Most notable was his Bedlam Brewery Starman showing at Eastbourne Town which helped Hassocks to their first win at the Saffrons in 17 seasons.
There is clearly something about the sunshine coast which Loversidge likes, what with it also having been the venue for that first senior goal 24 months earlier.
Loversidge will now be hoping for an injury free 2023-24 as he aims to become he the 42nd product of the Robins youth system to pass a century of senior appearances for the club.
