Robins fly away from Magpies’ Nest with convincing victory
Three goals scored, none conceded and a thoroughly professional performance away at Loxwood secured Hassocks their first victory of the season in front of an increasingly infuriated Nest of Magpies.
The Robins drew some of that ire from the home support whose verbal barbs appeared to be part of an early warm up for the eagerly anticipated Loxwood Joust festival this weekend, but most of it was reserved for referee Pablo Aguilar.
Mr Aguilar booked fourMagpies players before sin binning Loxwood captain Alfie Jones for protesting too vehemently over the award of an 83rd minute penalty to Hassocks converted by Pat Harding.
It was admittedly a soft foul on substitute Ben Bacon which led to the spot kick which gave the Robins their third and final goal.
Loxwood though had been extremely fortunate not to concede a 21st minute penalty when Jamie Wilkes glided past three players and into the box, where he had his legs swiped away for arguably the most blatant foul of the evening.
At least that is how it looked from the sidelines. In fairness to Mr Aguilar, his view was impeded by a number of bodies between himself and the rangy Wilkes.
That did not stop Hassocks being incensed, however. So much so that the incident was still playing on visiting minds going into half time.
Robins assistant coach Tom Hughes spoke to Mr Aguilar as the sides headed towards the changing rooms at the interval, sparking a pantomime exchange of words with an unimpressed Loxwood management team.
The Magpies are being filmed this season by the Bunch of Amateurs non-league football documentary team and their cameras were in close pursuit.
One can only hope they were not expecting to film something akin to Pep Guardiola All or Nothing on Amazon as this was more Pat and Peggy EastEnders in the Queen Vic.
As for the flurry of yellow cards flashed Loxwood’s way, two appeared harsh but the other two were deserved.
And it was certainly not Mr Aguilar’s fault Loxwood failed to once test their former number one Fraser Trigwell in the Hassocks goal all evening.
Trigwell was one of four ex-Magpies in the Robins starting XI alongside player head coach James Westlake, Sam Smith and Tom Frankland.
The last of those opened the scoring on 19 minutes for his first goal in Hassocks colours. Jack Troak was poleaxed by Tyler Dhanipersad 25 yards out, picking up the first Loxwood booking of the evening for his troubles.
Frankland fired the subsequent free kick superbly around the wall to beat the despairing dive of Magpies number one Conor Manderson.
Two minutes later came the controversial decision not to award Wilkes a penalty, the first of several occasions in which the tall striker was brought to ground following direct gazelle-like runs.
Loxwood saw more of the ball after that before Hassocks reasserted control, fashioning three good chances to extend the lead before half time.
A delightful Westlake through ball slipped in Troak who could only shoot over. Harding flashed a powerful left footed volley just wide and then Benson showed real tenacity to outpace Ben Hack and go one-on-one with Manderson.
Benson’s effort was a little to close to the Loxwood goalkeeper, enabling Manderson to make a solid stop with his legs.
The second half was only 60 seconds old when Manderson again denied Benson, this time from a curling effort which required a sprawling save.
Despite being a thoroughly polite and likeable young man, Troak somehow became public enemy number one amongst the Loxwood fans gathered behind the goal over the next 20 minutes.
Predictably, this culminated in Troak setting up the second Hassocks goal. A flat corner from his wand of a left foot was knocked down at the back post by Alex Bygraves. Benson showed his poacher’s instincts, lashing home a volley at the second attempt from close range.
Troak’s next set piece was less successful, a 30 yard piledriver free kick which flew through the forest surrounding the Nest.
“That was closer to the goal at Alfold than ours,” quipped one Magpies supporter. Given that Dunsfold Road is only two miles due north, they did have a point.
The second Hassocks goal had created a sense that the game was done but that did not prevent the Robins ruthlessly going after a third.
Harding duly provided it, sending Manderson the wrong way from the spot to move within two goals of overhauling James Laing and climbing into second spot in the Hassocks all-time scorers list.
Hassocks: Fraser Trigwell; Bradley Tighe, Sam Smith, Alex Bygraves, Joe Bull; Tom Frankland, James Westlake, Jamie Wilkes, Jack Troak; Pat Harding, Liam Benson.
Subs: Ben Bacon (Benson 74), Elliott Hanslow (Frankland 79), Kyle Woolven (Harding 84), Harvey Blake (Tighe 85), Matt Gunn (unused).
