Hassocks and Steyning Town will lock horns at the Beacon this coming Saturday in an eagerly anticipated league fixture, the first between the two since the 1994-95 season.
Despite the lack of competitive action between the two clubs, there is a sense of familiarity between the two due to the large number of players who’ve swapped between the Shooting Field and the Beacon in the past decade.
Current Hassocks manager Mark Dalgleish started the trend, departing the Barrowmen after many years of service to take up a role as Mickey Jewell’s assistant in the summer of 2010.
A number of players followed him from Steyning to Hassocks. It wasn’t long until Steyning themselves had an ex-Robin in charge, John Sutter taking over for the 2013-14 campaign.
The Robins could name two former Barrowmen in their side today with Andy Whttingham and Liam Benson both having plied their trade at the Shooting Field.
Benson in fact began the campaign with Steyning before re-joining Hassocks for a third spell early on in the campaign. Steyning meanwhile have Alex Gathern and Jamie Weston among their number for this season.
Weston in particular remains a popular figure at the Beacon after playing over 100 times as a mainstay of Jewell’s side who secured Hassocks’ highest-ever finish of fourth in the 2011-12 campaign.
Weston is the Barrowmen’s second top scorer on what is proving to be a memorable first top flight campaign since the 196-87 season after winning promotion as Division One runners up to Alfold last April.
They currently occupy eighth place in the table, having won eight, drawn eight and lost seven of their 23 matches so far and they’ll come into this one high in confidence having beaten second placed Peacehaven & Telscombe 2-1 last Saturday.
Hassocks meanwhile were busy suffering their worst ever home defeat as a Southern Combination League side when losing 7-0 to Eastbourne Town.
Steyning could be even higher, too. Gerry Murphy’s side have developed a reputation as the division’s draw specialists having shared the spoils on eight occasions so far, far and away the most in the division.
Included among those stalemates are highly credible points against title challenging Eastbourne Town, in-form Eastbourne United and the formidable talents of Newhaven.
Being hard to beat looks certain to ensure that Steyning survive this season and with the income that their wonderful 3G pitch and the facilities that the Shooting Field provides, who knows how high they climb up the pyramid in the coming years?
Presuming Hassocks avoid relegation this season, you suspect we’ll be facing each other much more regularly than twice in the league over the course of the next 25 years.
There have been four cup meetings since our most recent clash, all which took place in a five year period between 2010 and 2015 and all in the Sussex Senior Cup.
Hassocks won two of those, there was one draw and Steyning triumphed in one which was the last time the sides faced each other in November 2015. Danny Gainsford, Rob Clark and former Robins striker Craig Knowles were on target for the Barrowmen that night with Phil Gault netting the Robins consolation.
That was Steyning’s first ever competitive victory against Hassocks. The overall head-to-head reads nine matches, five Hassocks wins, three draws and one defeat.
Kick off is at 3pm at the Beacon and entrance is £6 adults, £3 concessions and Under 16s go free. The Robins Bar and the T Bar will be serving beer and hot food and drink throughout, we’ll be running a raffle with tickets priced at just £1 a strip and our 36 page award winning matchday programme will be available for £1.
