HASSOCKS SHOCK TO END LEADERS PAGHAM’S 13 GAME WINNING STREAK
After 13 successive wins to start their Sussex County League Division One campaign, leaders Pagham were shocked at Nyetimber Lane as Hassocks left with all three points courtesy of a 2-1 win.
The Lions have looked and been unbeatable so far this season and, although nobody was making too much noise about it in public, they had Newhaven’s 50-year-old record of 16 straight victories to begin a top flight season well within their sights.
They’d netted 38 times and contained the division’s leading scorer Scott Murfin, who always seems to score against Hassocks, among their ranks.
As a result, not many people gave Hassocks a prayer going into this game. Mickey Jewell’s side have been wildly inconsistent this season and came into the clash having lost their past three games, conceding 15 times along the way.
They had won just five times from their opening 16 games in all competitions, exiting the FA Cup, FA Vase and John O’Hara League Cup at the earliest possible stage in the process.
To add to Jewell’s woes, there have been serious doubts about the fitness of Jack Simpson. The Robins number one missed that League Cup defeat at Old Barn Way a month ago with injury and although he has played in every game since, he has looked as if he is a man playing through the pain barrier for the cause.
That was until this one. Simpson was back on song here, showing the sort of form that saw him claim a clean sweep of Player’s Player, Manager’s Player and Supporter’s Player of the Season awards last year.
Jewell knows he has a talented squad that will come good once they can get out of the rut. To his credit, he kept the faith in making just one change from the 2-0 defeat away at Division One newcomers AFC Uckfield Town at the weekend, a game which the Robins dominated but were in the end denied anything from due to some woeful finishing.
Kieran O’Callaghan was available again and he came into shore up the centre of midfield with Jamie Weston moving out to the left and Phil Johnson dropping down to the bench.
It looked like things would go to form when Pagham took the lead after just three minutes when James Temple’s superb effort from distance whistled past Simpson and into the back of the net.
Undeterred, Hassocks equalised by the time the clock had reached the sixth minute. A clumsy challenge in the box from Pagham gave Phil Gault the opportunity to level things up from the penalty spot and he duly did, confidently dispatching his kick for 1-1 and his ninth goal of the season.
Hassocks were indebted to Simpson after that for keeping Murfin and his fellow attackers at bay with a string of outrageous saves which would ultimately prove to be the difference between the to sides.
Pagham thought they’d finally found a way past the young Hassocks stopper with 12 minutes remaining, but that effort was chalked off by the officials.
It was a decision that seemed to galvanise Hassocks and in particular Johnson, now on the field in place of the hard working Nathan Miles.
He went close with a header in the final 10 minutes from a Chris Maynard delivery that flew just over the bar. That was a warning sign and as Pagham went looking for a winner to make it victory number 14, they were hit with a sucker punch as Johnson scored his fifth goal of the season in the 88th minute to end the only remaining 100% record in Division One.
Hassocks: Jack Simpson; Rob South, Ashley Marsh, Stuart Faith, Chris Maynard; James Westlake, Anthony Hibbert, Kieran O’Callaghan, Jamie Weston; Phil Gault, Nathan Miles.
Subs: Phil Johnson (Miles), Dan Jacques, Andy Whittingham (unused).
Starman: Jack Simpson, a very welcome return to form.
