Defender set for his ninth campaign in Robins colours
Nine years ago when he made his debut at 17, he was Young Brad. Now Bradley Tighe is considered a Hassocks stalwart as he signs up for another season at the Beacon with 170 appearances for the Robins to his name.
The defender played 32 times in 2022-23 under his sixth different management team. Dave John, Mark Dalgleish and Phil Wickwar, Dalgleish on his own, John again, Brad Sweetman, and now James Westlake have all viewed Tighe as an integral part of their Hassocks back line.
Tighe burst onto the scene initially as a right back, making the number two shirt his own in the second half of the 2014-15 season.
The 2015-16 campaign saw Tighe become one of the youngest ever winners of Hassocks Players’ Player of the Season. He then left for Ringmer in the summer of 2017 after 74 senior outings for the Robins.
When the Blues folded at the end of the 2017-18 season, Tighe’s next stop was a brief stay with Lancing before Dalgleish brought him back to the Beacon in November 2018.
A further 27 matches followed over the remainder of 2018-19 and although he signed for Hassocks for the 2019-20 campaign, Tighe did not play a competitive match before switching to Seaford Town.
He spent the next 18 months with the Badgers until returning to Hassocks for a third spell during the 2021 lockdown, ahead of the Southern Combination League Premier Division Supplementary Shield.
Tighe passed 100 appearances for the club during that competition and played 35 times in 2021-22. His central defensive partnership with Dan Turner played a major role in helping Hassocks avoid relegation.
The Robins kept six clean sheets from their final 13 matches, with Tighe’s form good enough to earn him the accolade of Manager’s Player of the Season from Sweetman.
Despite closing in on a double century of games for Hassocks spread over eight seasons, Tighe is still waiting for his first senior goal.
The celebrations will be quite something if the popular stalwart – that word again – breaks his duck at some point in 2023-24.
