Their hopes of winning a first ever Southern Combination League Under 23 West Division title may be over, but Hassocks still have two games left of the campaign in which their focus will now be on securing the runners up spot.
The first of those comes this Thursday with Arundel the visitors to the Beacon. It was the Mullets who put a serious dent in the Robins’ title challenge when the two sides met for the first time this season three weeks ago at Mill Road, with the hosts running out 4-0 winners through a Harry Russell brace and goals from Jack Kates and Patricio Gomes.
Hassocks had no answer to an Arundel side who, like the Robins with Josh Green, Harvey Enticknap and James Littlejohn, have several players who represent both their first and Under 23 sides.
Dion Jarvis is the West Division’s top scorer whilst they are also likely to include the dangerous Benajmin Gray, who scored at the Beacon in January during Arundel’s 2-0 Premier Division win.
This is the Mullets’ first season running a side at Under 23 level and they’ve enjoyed a relatively successful time of it. They’ve won eight, drawn five and lost six of their 19 games to date and had they managed to turn some of those stalemates into victories, they could have even joined YM and the Robins in the battle for the title.
With this being Arundel’s debut season, it means that the clash last month down by the banks of the Arun was the first time these two sides have met at this level of football.
The last time they met in intermediate football came in the 2016-17 season when Arundel Reserves came to the Beacon to face Hassocks Under 21s in the second round of the Sussex Intermediate Cup with the Robins winning 1-0 through a Jake Booth goal.
Prior to that, there were regular clashes in the days when the Southern Combination League ran a reserve section. The last league meetings at that level came in 2014-15 with a 2-2 draw on the Robins previous visit to Mill Road in January 2015 in which Booth and Luke Pawson netted. Booth was again on target in August 2014 when the Mullets left Mid Sussex with all three points via a 2-1 win.
Hassocks need just one point from this or their final league game against East Preston next Tuesday to finish in second place for the second season running. Kick off is at 7.45pm and entrance is £3 adults with everybody else going free. All the normal facilities at the Beacon will be open.
