Hassocks take a break from Southern Combination League action on Tuesday night as they get their Sussex Senior Cup campaign underway with one of the toughest draws imaginable.
The road to the Amex starts for the Robins away at Chichester City, one of the favourites for this season’s Premier Division title.
Miles Rutherford’s side currently sit second in the table, trailing leaders Horsham YMCA by two points but having played a game less.
Chi will come into the tie in good spirits having hammered Lingfield 7-0 at Oaklands Park on Saturday. That was just the latest in a long line of heavy beatings they’ve dished out so far this season, racking up 31 goals from the nine games at an average of over three a game.
Six of those came against the Robins back in August. That was on match day two as Scott Jones, Dave Herbert, Jimmy Wild, Rob Hutchings and a brace from Gicu Iordache gave Chi an easy victory.
It was the latest in a long line of impressive results that Chi have racked up against Hassocks, making it seven wins in eight meetings with 27 goals plundered along the way.
The one game that the Robins did manage to win in that sequence came at Oakland Park last season, which should at least give some encouragement to Hassocks supporters making the long journey west.
It was a stunning result at that, George Galbraith-Gibbons and Michael Death netting in a shock 2-1 win that gave the Robins renewed hope of avoiding relegation and all but ended Chi’s slim hopes of being crowned champions.
There has been just one Sussex Senior Cup meeting between the two and that was a strange encounter in the 2008-09 season.
Both sides had already been knocked out of the competition by Bognor Regis Town when they were reinstated due to the Blue Square South outfit playing in ineligible player in the earlier rounds.
With a place in the last eight at stake, Chi arrived at the Beacon suffering from a goalkeeper crisis with 58-year-old manager Adie Girdler having to play himself in goal as a result.
Despite the visitors having a man just seven years short of collecting his pension between the sticks, Hassocks relied on an own goal to secure their place in the quarter finals via a 1-0 win.
That is the furthest that the Robins have ever been in the competition. Chi have lifted the trophy once back in 1926.
Kick off is 7.45pm at Oaklands Park.
