Weather depending, Hassocks will play for the first time in a fortnight when they make the trip to face in-form Eastbourne Town at the Saffrons.
The Robins have seen their past two games postponed due to Storm Diana, losing both home fixtures against AFC Uckfield Town 11 days previously and last week’s visit to the Beacon of league leaders Horsham YMCA.
They haven’t kicked a ball since recording an impressive 3-2 victory over Lingfield two weeks ago in which a Phil Johnson brace and one from Jake Lindsey hauled them out of the relegation zone at the expense of Arundel.
Town meanwhile endured a poor start to the campaign for the third season running, which looks to have put a serious dent in any title challenge they might have been looking to launch.
They picked up just one win from their first six games across all competitions but there has been a significant improvement over the last month and they are unbeaten in six games, including a highly impressive 3-0 win away at Whitehawk in the Sussex Senior Cup and a 4-0 hammering dished out to Southern Counties East Premier Division side Crowborough Athletic in the second round of the FA Vase.
Their improved form has also seen them beat three of the top five in the last six weeks, recording victories over Pagham, Saltdean United and Chichester City in an ominous sign for the Robins.
Also ominous is Hassocks’ poor record in the fixture. There have been 32 games between the two with Town winning over half of them – 17 – to the Robins’ nine with six draws along the way. In 28 meetings in the Southern Combination Premier, Hassocks have won just eight.
The Saffrons has been a particularly unhappy hunting ground, with the Robins last tasting victory there 13 seasons ago when Stuart Faith scored the only goal of the game.
Since then, there have been a couple of draws with the most notable seeing the Robins come from 2-0 down to pick up a point in April 2015, boosting their hopes of avoiding relegation while delivering a significant blow to Town’s own title chances. Phil Johnson and Bradley Bant both scored on that occasion.
The sides last met in March when Hassocks were blown away by an outstanding first half performance as Town left the Beacon with all three points via a 4-0 victory.
Evan Archibald was simply unplayable as a he helped himself to a hat-trick inside of the opening 43 minutes with an unfortunate own goal from Will Broomfield completing scoring in the closing stages. That followed a 3-1 defeat for Hassocks down at the Saffrons in September.
Kick off on Saturday is at 3pm and entrance is free with a bucket collection instead taking place to raise money for Eastbourne charity Memory Lane. Please do your best to get along and support a fantastic cause at the Saffrons.
