Robins ease past Oakwood and into second round of Under 23 Cup
Facing a potential banana skin of a tie in the first round of the Southern Combination League Under 23 Cup, Hassocks gave a professional performance to run out 3-1 winners away at Oakwood.
The Oaks may occupy bottom spot in the North Division with Hassocks the opposite end as table toppers, but the Robins arrived at Tinsley Road knowing it would not be quite as straightforward as the standings suggested for a couple of reasons.
It was only four weeks ago that Hassocks had just about seen off the challenge of Oakwood in a crazy, chaotic game in Creepy Crawley which finished 7-5 to the Robins.
The goals that evening came from Jack Duckett, Sam Smith, Billy Dove, Cavan Chedzey and a Nathan Miles hat-trick. Of those five, only Duckett was in the starting line up for the return visit.
Oakwood were also buoyed by their first league win in over a year. Their sole three points last season had come from being awarded a game when St Francis Rangers pulled out of their final few fixtures.
This time around, they have a genuine victory to their name having beaten Redhill 3-1 at Kiln Brow two weeks ago. It appears to have done wonders for their confidence.
Hassocks therefore can be pleased with the manner in which they comfortably saw off their plucky hosts to book a second round home tie against Hailsham Town.
The Robins themselves took extra motivation from the shambles of seven days earlier. Despite a day of heavy rain and the weather forecast predicting no obvious let up, Bexhill United waited until less than two hours before kick off to call off the Sussex Under 23 Cup game between the teams at the Polegrove.
Most of the Hassocks squad had already completed the long journey west by that point, making it a total waste of time for the Robins.
Hassocks took a very young side to Oakwood, showing three changes from the XI who had recorded a hugely impressive 5-1 win over Lingfield last time out.
Leon Turner and Jack Troak were unavailable and Oliver Parker-Williams dropped to the bench. Micael Fatela came in for his first start since belatedly receiving international clearance after a six week wait.
Fatela had scored on his debut from the bench against the Lingers and Julian Durand was similarly promoted into the XI having notched as a substitute two weeks ago.
Wes Tighe was the other change, giving us an opportunity to appreciate his father Jason’s quite incredible work on Twitter (or whatever we are meant to call it now) in the aftermath of the Bexhill postponement.
Durand and Fatela both justified their starts by scoring the three Hassocks goals between them. Fatela contributed one with Durand bagging a brace to move onto five for the season, taking over from Chedzey as the Robins’ top scorer. Oakwood’s consolation came from Stephen Adegboye.
Hassocks: Jack Thomas, Ben Hicks, Dan Turner, George Mercer, Noah McHale, Wes Tighe, Alex Wintle, Sam Fernley, Julian Durand, Micael Fatela, Jack Duckett.
Subs: Oliver Parker-Williams, Jack Smith, Billy Dove, George Gladding.
