ROBINS COLLAPSE FOR SECOND TIME IN A WEEK TO DROP MORE POINTS
For the second time in seven days, Hassocks threw away two points at the Beacon by conceding a late equaliser.
The 1-1 stalemate against Hailsham Town last Tuesday night was regrettable. This 3-3 draw with Eastbourne United Association was downright criminal from the hosts.
Hassocks led 2-0 and 3-1 and for much of the game appeared to be cruising to victory, holding a two-goal advantage as late as the 76th minute.
Quite what the Robins were doing allowing Rafal Ciupinski to run from the halfway line before beating Joel Harding with a 22 yard shot to peg the score back to 3-2 is anyone’s guess.
Even more inexplicable was the panic which set in across the pitch after Cipuninski struck. Suddenly, Hassocks kept giving the ball away with monotonous regularity. This eventually led to United substitute Chris Osunami notching an 88th minute equaliser.
Remarkably, it could have become even worse for the Robins when Osunami missed a good opportunity in stoppage time to leave Hassocks empty-handed.
You might be wondering at this juncture whether there were any positives for the hosts. Mark Sheriff was one, the experienced little striker continuing to rediscover his scoring touch.
Sheriff had not netted a senior goal this season until bagging both in Saturday’s 2-0 John O’Hara League Cup win down at Selsey.
He was always been one of those forwards for whom goals come in patches. United found that to their cost with Sheriff notching another double.
Dave John made two changes from the weekend victory at the High Street Ground. Hassocks were denied the services of Richard Thompson due to injury.
Sam Fisk switched to left wing back with Spencer Slaughter coming straight back into the XI after missing the Selsey game because of his brush with the law on Friday night.
That story already appears to have entered Robins folklore, although it might be a few weeks yet until John sees the funny side of the Saturday morning phone call received from Brighton Police Station.
Also returning was Anthony Hibbert. He played a part in both Sheriff goals, the first of which arrived with 18 minutes on the clock.
A diagonal pass sent Fisk away to deliver a great cross. Sheriff did well to arch his back after initially running under the ball, the result being a fine header put beyond the United goalkeeper.
Hassocks could have motored out of sight after that. Sheriff placed a free header against the bar from Slaughter’s first-time cross.
Sheriff then fired over when played in by strike partner Phil Gault before missing an absolute sitter. After charging down an attempted clearance, the goal was at Sheriff’s mercy.
He seemed caught in two minds over what to do and by the time he decided to shoot, Reece Head had made it back to clear off the line.
Gault was the next man guilty of a bad miss, putting a header off target from six yards from another Slaughter cross.
Five minutes into the second half and those misses were forgotten. Gault controlled a Hibbert corner at the far post and dinked the ball cleverly back across the face of goal where Sheriff was on hand to nod home.
It was all one-way traffic at this stage but on 58 minutes, poor Hassocks defending handed United a lifeline. Mark Warren flicked on a Tom Morton corner for Lucas Mann to bundle home at the far post.
The reprieve seemed like it would be short-lived, however, as the Robins restored their two-goal advantage just three minutes layer.
Sheriff found Gault, who turned his man and managed to dig the ball out from under his feet for a good finishing making it 3-1.
Sam Crabb fizzed one across goal to offer the visitor’s hope they were not yet out of it and that hope turned into reality thanks to Ciupinski and Osunami, leaving Hassocks again shaking their heads in disbelief.
Hassocks: Joel Harding; Mickey Turner, Pete Lear, Ashley Marsh, Stuart Faith, Sam Fisk; Matt Robbins, Spencer Slaughter, Anthony Hibbert; Phil Gault, Mark Sheriff.
Subs: Laurence Robinson, Ian Simpson, Chris Brown, Phil Wickwar (unused).
Starman: Mark Sheriff for scoring another double.
