Defender signs up for a third season with the Robins
Sam Smith will stay a Hassocks player for the 2023-24 season after signing up for a third season with the Robins.
The former Loxwood man played 27 times in the previous campaign, mainly as a centre back. He scored once, adding the sixth goal in the 7-0 August Bank Holiday Monday rout of Roffey at the Beacon.
Smith’s best run of form came during February, when he finished in second place in the Robins Player of the Month award as part of a Hassocks backline who were setting out on what would end up being a club-record run of five consecutive clean sheets.
A youth team player at Eastbourne Borough, Smith made his senior debut for Eastbourne Town in the Isthmian League during the 2013-14 campaign.
He remained at the Saffrons following relegation to the Southern Combination League, playing 28 times in total for Town at either centre half or left back.
Smith moved to Loxwood in 2019, although two ankle operations restricted him to 35 appearances in two-and-a-half seasons. Whilst with the Magpies, Smith was converted from a defender to a target man striker.
He scored six times for Loxwood, including in the Southern Combination Premier Division Supplementary Shield competition. The Magpies went all the way to the final under the management of Spencer Slaughter and James Westlake.
When both Slaughter and Westlake returned to Hassocks as players after their departure from Plaistow Road in September 2021, Smith was one of the first of their Loxwood squad to move to the Beacon.
Signed in November, Smith marked his Robins debut with a goal away at former club Eastbourne Town. He suffered with a couple of niggling injuries but still made six starts and eight substitute appearances under Brad Sweetman as Hassocks escaped relegation in the second half of the 2021-22 campaign.
Smith now has 41 matches for the Robins under his belt and having been almost injury-free since Christmas, he will no doubt have a huge part to play in the new season as Hassocks look to build upon the tightening up they showed defensively from late January onwards.
