Four-midable Benson fires Hassocks to Peter Bentley derby date
There will be a Mid Sussex Derby in the third round of the Peter Bentley League Cup after Hassocks secured safe passage past Selsey to set up a home clash with Haywards Heath Town.
Liam Benson was the star of the show at the wonderfully named Seal Bay Stadium, scoring four of the goals in a 5-1 victory for the Robins.
Heath did their part too, winning 3-1 at Wick. The sides will now meet at the Beacon in October with a place in the quarter finals of the competition up for grabs.
With both teams currently ensconced in the top six of the Southern Combination Premier Division, it should be a cracker.
Fresh in Hassocks minds ahead of the long journey west would have been what happened seven days earlier in another cup tie against Division One opponents.
The Robins failed to do themselves justice in their Sussex Principal RUR Charity Cup clash at Roffey, slipping on the proverbial banana skin and falling to a 2-0 defeat.
This looked on paper an equally tricky assignment. Selsey had finished in the playoff places last season and have retained much of that squad.
League form in the current campaign has not quite matched so far, but the Blues had already claimed the impressive scalps of higher division opponents Pagham and Tooting & Mitcham United in the Sussex Senior Cup and FA Vase respectively.
No doubt they would have fancied their chances of adding Hassocks to that list. Thankfully for the Robins, they are in a rich vein of scoring form at the moment.
This was the third time in their past four matches that they have hit five, having hammered AFC Varndeanians 5-0 before edging out Sheerwater 5-4 in a nine-goal FA Vase classic at the weekend.
James Westlake made four changes from XI who started that thriller against the Sheers. The headlines were Under 18s left back Charlie Fogden making his full senior debut and a first start for over a year in midfield for Lewis Westlake.
Bradley Tighe and Super Pat Harding were the other players given opportunities with Tom Frankland, Joe Bull, Alfie Loversidge and Josh Mundy dropping out.
Hassocks took the lead with 15 minutes on the clock, Benson putting a well placed header beyond the reach of Selsey goalkeeper Jack Wyatt.
That set the tone for what was to come with all six goals on the night being notched from crosses into the box.
Benson doubled the advantage on the half hour mark via his second headed goal of the evening, ensuring the Robins went into the break 2-0 ahead.
Selsey made their first change of the evening on 60 minutes, introducing James Henton up front in place of Angel Harris.
It proved to be an inspired decision from manager Daren Pearce as within 180 seconds of his introduction, Henton pulled one back for the Blues after Shane Brazil crossed from the right.
Selsey had their tails up and nobody could blame any Hassocks supporters whose minds wandered to what happened against Sheerwater, when the Robins blew 3-0 and 4-1 leads to almost snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
But then came a moment of controversy which enabled Hassocks to restore their two-goal advantage five minutes after Henton had struck.
One of the assistant referees flagged for an offside against Hassocks, only to then say he had made a mistake once the free kick had been awarded.
Man in the middle Adan Saige responded by giving the Robins an uncontested drop ball so that they could retake possession, leaving Selsey baffled.
And that bafflement instantly turned to anger as Hassocks immediately worked the ball out wide and crossed for Benson to complete his hat-trick.
The Blues were understandably miffed by this turn of events and Hassocks went onto score twice more in the space of the final two minutes.
Benson added one to complete the first four-goal haul of his career and the other came from returning substitute Dan Turner, a 67th minute replacement for Matt Gunn.
It was the 2021-22 Players’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Season double award winner’s first senior appearance since returning from a year playing cricket in the southern hemisphere.
Hassocks: Fraser Trigwell; Bradley Tighe, Matt Gunn, Alex Bygraves, Charlie Fogden; Sean Stephenson, Lewis Westlake, Mike Williamson, Pat Harding; Jamie Wilkes; Liam Benson.
Subs: Dan Turner (Gunn 67), Joe Bull (Fogden 77), Josh Mundy (Westlake 77), Kyle Woolven (Harding 77), Tom Frankland (Tighe 83).
Starman: Liam Benson
