CZECH MATE AS AARON STRIKES LATE TO WIN IT FOR HASSOCKS
Aaron Czech chose a timely moment to net his first senior goal for Hassocks as the 17-year-old substitute delivered a most welcome three points courtesy of a 2-1 win over struggling Arundel.
There were just seven minutes of normal time remaining when Czech replaced Jamie Ingham but within two minutes of his introduction, he’d latched onto Phil Gault’s through ball to coolly finish past the Mullets’ outstanding goalkeeper James Fernandes and win the game for the Robins.
Hassocks came into the encounter in a bit of a rut, two defeats in the space of a week at the hands of Horsham YMCA in the league and Sussex RUR Charity Cup giving boss Mickey Jewell some cause for concern.
Jewell said afterwards that he was far from happy with thus performance against struggling opponents but given the number of high-profiles players that the Robins were coping without, that was perhaps a little harsh on those who did eventually manage to get over the line at the Beacon.
And although Arundel felt hard done by come the final whistle, the fact that it was Fernandes who was the best player on the pitch over the course of the 90 minutes tells you that on the balance of things, Hassocks just about deserved it.
Fernandes pulled off some excellent saves while also being grateful to his defenders for several goal line clearances as Chris Maynard gave them an extremely testing time with his in-swinging corners from the right.
Maynard for Stuart Brown was one of two changes from the side who’d gone down 3-2 at Gorings Mead in midweek, the other being Jamie Ingham coming in for Craig Knowles who was unavailable.
Knowles’ absence left Gault as Hassocks’ only recognised forward, forcing Jewell to use the versatile Kieran O’Callaghan as a striker and perhaps unsurprisingly, it took the Robins the first quarter of the match to muster any attacking potency.
They were already 1-0 down by that point, the classy Russell Hardwell sending over a dangerous cross which finally fell for skipper Scott Tipper to score with a gentle shot on the turn.
That seemed to shock Hassocks into life and when they did eventually manage to start creating chances, they found Fernandes in inspired form, although weak finishing also helped the Arundel number one’s cause.
First he denied Gault comfortably after the Robins top scorer was set up by Anthony Hibbert and that was followed by a sequence of three good chances in no more than five minutes.
From a swift break, Jamie Ingham put Hibbert clean through and when he was presented with a second chance after Fernandes foiled his initial effort, it was right back Nathan Da Costa who performed heroics to deflect the follow-up effort just wide.
Gault then struck a post with a header from Rob South’s long cross before an error by Ryan Peake left O’Callaghan through with only Fernandes to beat, but yet again the finish was poor and the Mullets survived.
Alex Harris was less than convincing when flapping a half chance from Rory Biggs around the post but Hassocks’ young stopper survived that scare and then his side equalise right on the stroke of half time.
It was a neat passing move that set up the opportunity to shoot from 30 yards for Hibbert and he duly took it, hitting a superb distance strike which left Fernandes grasping at thin air high up to his left.
Conceding so close to the break left Arundel looking a little deflated and although Hassocks looked the more likely scorers throughout the second half, they kept their fans waiting until late in the day for Czech to provide the winner.
The closest the visitors came was when Rory Biggs was allowed to shoot from distance but the effort was neatly turned over by Harris.
Hassocks: Alex Harris; Rob South, Ashley Marsh, Nick Pitcher, Chris Maynard; Jamie Ingham, Anthony Hibbert, Dan Jacques, Tom Davess; Kieran O’Callaghan, Phil Gault.
Subs: Stuart Brown (Jacques 60), George Brown (Davess 64), Aaron Czech (Ingham 83).
