It was a mixed Sunday in knockout competitions for Hassocks as the Under 18s were eliminated from the Sussex Bluefin Dennis Probee Youth Cup but the Ladies progressed to the quarter finals of the South East Counties Women’s League Cup.
Brad Sweetman’s young Robins always looked to have an uphill task against a V’s side who are proving to be quite the enigma over in the Southern Combination League Under 18 East Division.
They sit second bottom of the table with only two wins to their name so far, but they reached the third round of the County Cup by being the only side to have beaten Central Division leaders Haywards Heath Town so far this season.
That 1-0 win courtesy of a George Haire goal one month ago against a side with 10 wins from 10 and 70 goals scored in Hassocks’ section suggested that Varndenian’s would provide stiff opposition for a full-strength Robins line up.
The task was made doubly hard for Hassocks then as Sweetman was without three of his most important players as captain Jack Baden and top goalscorer Tristan Hayes were both unavailable while goalkeeper Toby Fisher missed out having impressed when starting for the first team less than 24 hours earlier in their 2-1 defeat away at Eastbourne Town.
Varndeanians scored once in the first half through Harry Couchman and three times in the second, Couchman again netting alongside Harry Garnham and Conor Fitzpatrick.
The Robins consolation came from Harvey Ransome with what was his first goal for the club but it counted for nothing as V’s set up a last eight meeting with AFC Uckfield Town.
That concluded the young Robins fixtures for 2018 with their next game scheduled to take place at home to Broadbridge Heath on Sunday 6th January.
As for the Ladies, they continued their defence of the League Cup by winning 5-1 away at Division One East side Anchorians to book a quarter final spot against either Thamesview or Worthing in what would be a repeat of last season’s final should they face the Rebels.
The Robins made the long journey to Gillingham without top scorer Billie Philpott and there was a further blow before kick off when goalkeeper Sarah Chappell injured her wrist in the warm up.
That meant Ellie Moquet taking over in goal less than 30 minutes before kick off but the disruption proved to be little bother to Hassocks as they took the lead inside of six minutes.
In Philpott’s absence, second-top scorer Katherine Chappell stepped up to the plate as she opened the scoring after bursting through the Anchorians defence and coolly slotting past the advancing goalkeeper.
Jodie Johanson was looking dangerous down the right and she soon teed up an opportunity for Tallie Bright which was saved while Liz King saw a volley booked.
Hassocks didn’t have to wait long to double their advantage, Chappell producing a clever header which gave Johanson a sight of goal and she calmly lobbed the goalkeeper for 2-0.
It was against the run of play when Anchorians pulled one back, taking advantage of some hesitation in the Robins’ defence but the deficit wasn’t down to one for very long as Hassocks soon restored their two-goal advantage, a spectacular second goal from Johanson who struck the ball with the outside of her foot from way out on the right to give the home goalkeeper absolutely no chance.
Two minutes later and Hassocks had a free kick which cannoned into the wall allowing Anchorians to break quickly necessitating some good defending by skipper Sam Newman to avert the danger while at the other end, Kelly Rushworth and Bright again both went close.
Hassocks had the task of trying to play into a ridiculously strong wind in the second half and they took some time to adjust to it as Anchorians enjoyed their best spell of the game.
They couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard however, wasting one glorious opportunity in a crazy goalmouth scramble which was punished five minutes later when Rushworth released Chappell who went around two defenders to score her second and Hassocks’ fourth of the afternoon.
Anchorians came close to pulling another back with 15 minutes remaining but were desperately unfortunate to see a sharp effort cannon off the crossbar and their luck got even worse shortly afterwards when Chloe John stepped out of defence with the ball to find Kirsten Mair who made it 5-1.
Hassocks boss Martin Lee gave Sarah Chappell a 15 minute cameo in midfield to ensure she didn’t have a wasted journey as Hassocks wrapped up their 11th consecutive wins in all competitions stretching back to September.
They sign off for the year next Sunday at home to AFC Littlehampton in the last eight of the Sussex Women’s Challenge Trophy. Kick off is at 1.30pm at the Beacon.
