FRANTIC FIRST HALF SENDS ROBINS TO DEFEAT
If you had to pick a place for Hassocks to attempt to get their flailing season back on track, then a trip to Chichester City would be near the bottom of the list.
Oaklands Park is one of those venues where they very rarely manage to pick anything up. Yet this 4-2 defeat against a Chichester side sitting just five points off leaders Shoreham and in genuine title contention represented a much improved effort from the Robins.
The fixture list has not been kind to Hassocks in recent weeks. Although they have lost one game to weather, the league have inexplicably left them with three blank weekends since 2017 rolled around, meaning they’ve played just three times so far this year.
And while that has given a small opportunity for some of the squad’s walking wounded to be patched up, it has done nothing in terms of helping build up the sort of momentum that will be needed if Hassocks are to pull clear of the relegation zone which now lurks just one point behind them.
All six of this encounter’s goals came in an action packed first half and to the majority of people’s surprise, it was Hassocks who took the lead with nine minutes played.
Having begun on the front foot, the Robins earned themselves a corner which Lewis Westlake swung in. That was met by a Jack Rowe-Hurst header which fell to the predatory Michael Death who fired home for his ninth goal of the campaign.
Chichester’s defending of that set piece was so poor it could be described as Hassocks-esque. Which was ironic as the Robins took the mantra of “Any poor defending you can do, we can do better” as Chi equalised within five minutes.
Scott Jones was the beneficiary of some non-existent marking as he was left with all the time in the world to guide a free header from a free kick into the back of the net.
The game was midway through the first half when Chichester took the lead for the first time and if Hassocks had no-one but themselves to blame for the the host’s first then there was certainly an element of bad luck about the second.
Kieran Hartley was the scorer but he was aided by a big deflection which left James Broadbent in the Hassocks goal totally flummoxed.
The Robins showed the battling qualities that will be needed if they are to avoid the drop however and were level within three minutes.
The diminutive James Westlake can’t have scored many headers in his career yet here he was notching an absolute beauty.
It was the sort of goal that had you of predicted before kick off, somebody would have questioned your sanity. Centre back Jordan Badger inexplicably popped up out wide to deliver a peach of a cross which Westlake defied his stature to rise to and head home.
Four goals inside half an hour represented a frantic start yet the game continued to ebb and flow before the break as Chi added two more.
The first of those came from Dan Watts while the second was a goal of real quality, Josh Clack showing why he is one of the Premier Division’s more dangerous players by brilliantly setting up Jones for his second of the afternoon.
Given the action packed nature of the first half, it was little surprise that the second didn’t manage to live up to what had gone before as both sides created few chances between them.
In fact, you could argue that Hassocks had the better of it but they never looked likely to be able to claw their way back to what would have been an impressive point, although they will no doubt take heart from the performance ahead of a must-win game against bottom of the table Hailsham Town next weekend.
Hassocks: James Broadbent; Luke Akehurst, Tom Barnes, Jordan Badger, Ashley Marsh; Harry Mills; James Westlake, Lewis Westlake; Jack Rowe-Hurst; Michael Death, Liam Benson.
Subs: Jack Wilkins, Bradley Tighe, George Galbraith-Gibbons (used), Mark Price, Phil Wickwar (unused).
Starman: James Westlake.
