Hassocks’ enigmatic defender Dan Jacques has been voted as the Robins’ Player of the Month for January 2019.
The veteran of over 200 games for the club impressed with his displays at the heart of the Hassocks back four as Mark Dalgleish’s side won three and lost two of their five fixtures, taking 53% of the vote.
It’s hard to know where to start with regards to the fan favourites best performance of the month as he set a racked up three consecutive man of the match awards.
Those came in the 2-1 home defeat to AFC Uckfield Town, the 2-0 win away at Eastbourne United and the 2-0 loss against Arundel at the Beacon.
Jacques also starred in the 1-0 victory which kicked off the month against East Preston and the stunning 5-3 success against title chasing Horsham YMCA a week later.
This is the first time that Jacques has been voted as Player of the Month and it is a well-deserved accolade for a player who remains extremely popular with the regulars in the Maurice Boxall Stand.
Phil Johnson continued his remarkable run of always being the bridesmaid but never the bride as he finished in second place for the fifth successive month.
The striker wore the armband throughout most of January with regular captain Jordan Badger missing and he responded with five goals, his best monthly haul of the season.
Two of those came against his former club YMCA in a man of the match performance while he also netted the only goal of the game against EP as well as Hassocks’ second in their success away at Eastbourne United which took him onto 20 for the season.
Johnson remains the only man to have been voted into the top three for every poll so far having also acquired a third-place finish from the August poll to go with his raft of runners up medals.
In third place was Johnson’s striker partner Liam Benson who notched in the 5-3 win over Horsham YMCA.
Benson’s game was about so much more than goals in January though as he played a crucial role as a target man, particularly in the 2-0 success at the Oval.
The young striker is enjoying a particularly good time of it of late, having won the December Player of the Month vote while he is also approaching the milestone of 100 appearances for the Robins.
