November didn’t get off to the best of starts for Hassocks as they were hammered 6-0 at Broadbridge Heath but their trip to the Leisure Centre was at least notable for the debut of Toby Fisher.
The 16-year-old goalkeeper started in the absence of Josh Green, becoming the 100th youth team product since the
Robins set up their Under 18s side in 1991 to play first team football for the club, a fantastic achievement for all those involved at the Beacon below senior level over the last 27 years.
Despite the heavy defeat, Fisher impressed with a string of excellent saves. Indeed, without his interventions then the defeat to the high flying Bears could have been even worse.
Oliver Moore scored twice inside of the first 25 minutes to go with goals in the 36th minute from George Cousins and a 42nd minute effort from Thomas Howard-Bold as Heath went into the interval four goals ahead.
The Robins did improve slightly in the second half, only conceding a further two. Max Howell netted goal number five on 55 minutes with Dean Wright rounding off the scoring with seven minutes remaining.
Coming off the back of that hammering, Hassocks could’ve been forgiven for fearing the absolute worse when confronted with the name of Pagham next on the Southern Combination League Premier Division fixture list.
The Robins hadn’t tasted victory over the Lions for five seasons. In fact, they’d picked up just a solitary point from their last eight meetings with Pagham, lost seven of those and conceding 20 times along the way.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, it was another defeat at Nyetimber Lane although Hassocks did at least give an improved account of themselves in going down 5-2.
Had the Lions not had the services of Callum Overton, then it may have been a different story. Overton was in deadline form, claiming a hat-trick alongside two goals for the prodigious George Gaskin.
Overton’s first arrived with 12 minutes played but it owed much to a delightful cross from Scott Mufrin which teed up Overton for a powerful finish past Green for the opener.
Pagham doubled their advantage when Daryl Wollers crossed to the far post where Gaskin was lurking to tuck the ball home.
That goal arrived three minutes before the break and Pagham managed to find the time to add a third before referee Chris Britton blew for half time, Overton netting his second of the afternoon with a well placed header.
Overton added the fourth to complete his treble ending a fine solo run with a neat finish just past the hour mark and although the game may have been up by that point, the entertainment certainly wasn’t.
Jake Lindsey sparked a mad final 10 minutes by pulling one back for the Robins when taking advantage of some slack defending to run through and beat James Binfield.
Gaskin responded to that almost immediately by claiming Pagham’s fifth when getting the final touch onto a ball delivered into the Hassocks area but the scoring still wasn’t done, Jordan Badger netting the sort of goal that you don’t associate with a no-nonsense defender by bursting through the Lions defence and slotting past Binfield in injury time.
There was an equally action packed finish to the Robins’ final game of the month when Lingfield visited the Beacon as five goals were packed into the last 30 minutes as Hassocks ran out 3-2 winners.
Having not won in the league since bottom club Eastbourne United visited the Beacon on September 22nd, Mark Dalgleish shook things up by handing starts to two returning fan favourites as Bradley Tighe made his first appearance since rejoining the club from Lancing and James Westlake was also available after taking a year away from football to concentrate on his running career.
Tighe played a key role in the opening goal which arrived on the hour mark. The right back hit a brilliant long ball over the top which Phil Johnson collected, using his pace took to go steaming past Jamie Bakhit whose only answer was to haul the Hassocks striker down.
Johnson duly dusted himself down and converted the penalty with Lingfield equalising through Callum Ridley 17 minutes later.
They weren’t level for long however as, five minutes after Ridley struck, visiting goalkeeper Oliver Moore made a terrible error when spilling a shot straight to Lindsey who sensibly squared to Johnson for a tap in.
Johnson’s pace again caused devastation in the visitors back line with a couple of minutes remaining and he ran through before whipping the ball in for Lindsey to tap home at the back post to make it 3-1 but the game wasn’t done yet, Jake Horn scoring the Lingers second with seconds remaining.
The Under 23s played just twice in November and both of those were in cup competitions. They exited the Sussex Under 23 Challenge Trophy to Isthmian League side Hastings United in a 4-2 defeat at the Beacon in which captain Ellis Common and James Littlejohn netted.
Littlejohn was again on target in the following week’s Under 23 League Cup win over Peacehaven & Telscombe, notching a brace in a 6-0 win for the Robins. In fact, all three of Hassocks’ strikers scored doubles with Max Willcox and Tristan Hayes completing the scoring with his first goals for Nigel Pearce’s side.
After going 385 days without tasting defeat before October’s loss to Haywards Heath Town, the Under 18s lost both of their fixtures in November.
St Francis Rangers left the Beacon with all three points after a 3-2 victory in which Hayes scored twice. A week later and Montpelier Villa ended the Robins’ defence of their Under 18 League Cup by winning by the same score line. Yahya Azizi and Finley McDermott were on target on that occasion.
The Ladies had another stunning month as they won four out of four without conceding. Even more impressive was the fact that they managed to score 40 times at an average of 10 a game.
They kicked things off with a 5-0 win over Cray Valley in the League Cup. That was followed by a 7-0 win over Wandgas, an 11-0 victory against Victoire Development and an astonishing 17-0 success away at Bexhill United.
Billie Philpott helped herself to six goals in the final of those fixtures for a total 12 over the course of the month while Katherine Chappell notched eight and Kelly Rushworth six.
Harvey Enticknap ended November as Player of the Month in what proved to be a break through month. The Under 23 midfielder established himself in the first team with a string of fine performances, taking the award ahead of Phil Johnson and Jake Lindsey in second and third respectively.
