Hassocks will face a familiar foe in the second round of the Sussex Senior Cup with Premier Division rivals Lancing set to visit the Beacon.
The draw, which was made live on BBC Radio Sussex on Saturday night, has paired the Robins with Naim Rouane’s title chasing Lancers, offering another instalment in a fixture that has become renowned for its entertainment factor over the past few seasons.
The 30 previous meetings between Hassocks and Lancing have yielded over 100 goals at an average of other three per game, so this definitely one to have on the over 2.5 selection on Bet365.
Lancing were victorious in that most recent clash which came in Mid Sussex back on August Bank Holiday Monday. A turgid first half wasn’t really in keeping with the game’s reputation but things sprung into life when substitute James Littlejohn put Hassocks into the lead on the hour mark.
It was one of Lancing’s own replacements who won them the game and ensured their 100% record remained intact, Alex Fair striking twice in the space of three minutes with a quarter of an hour remaining to put Lancing 2-1 ahead with a quarter of an hour remaining.
That wasn’t the end of the action however as Hassocks won a last minute penalty but unfortunately for the hosts, Ben Bacon’s effort was kept out by Lancing goalkeeper Tayler Seymour.
That was revenge of sorts for the Lancers, who’d given up four points against Hassocks in the 2018-19 season. The Robins won 3-1 at the Beacon on Boxing Day before Dan Stokes 95th minute strike rescued a point four months later when Hassocks went to Culver Road on Easter Monday and drew 2-2.
There has been one previous meeting in the Senior Cup and Hassocks will no doubt be keen to avoid a repeat of that experience as it saw them hammered 6-1 at Culver Road in October 2011.
Phil Gault had given Mickey Jewell’s side the perfect start by scoring after only six minutes but that was about as good as things got as the Lancers ran riot afterwards with six different players on target.
Lee Denyer, Darren Boswell, Richard Hudson, Darren Annis, Dan Turner and Titus Patterson all scored although the Robins’ cause wasn’t helped by a number of weird and wonderful decisions from the match officials.
This time around, there will be plenty of familiar faces lining up between the sides. Hassocks’ Josh Green and Liam Benson have both previously played for Lancing while the visitors will have Alex Bygraves and Matt Berridge in their ranks, the latter only having swapped the Beacon for Culver Road a matter of weeks ago.
No date has yet been set for the tie, but it does have to have taken place by Wednesday November 6th – please keep an eye on our website and social media feeds for details when we have them.
