ON SONG ROBINS OPEN WITH WIN OVER LAST SEASON’S SECOND
This is likely to turn out to be a really good result for Hassocks as in the season opener they mugged the team who finished runners up in Division One last season.
Lancing ended the 2011-12 campaign two places but 14 points better off than the Robins. The Lancers were only three points behind champions Three Bridges and with there being no clear favourites for the County League title at this stage, they’ll fancy their chances of going one better this season.
Hassocks themselves will have designs on at least bettering their highest-ever finish of fourth from last year, making more of an impression on the title race in the process.
These are the sorts of games that they need to win if they are to do that, so Mickey Jewell will no doubt have been delighted at his sides ability to pick up the three points despite being well below their best at the Beacon.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Hassocks are notoriously slow starters, a seven-game winless run through August and September last year proving fatal to their hopes of challenging for a top two finish last season.
For much of the first half the visitors looked the better side, comfortable on the ball and finding their men with more ease and regularity than their hosts.
But Hassocks are always dangerous with Phil Gault and Nathan Miles up front and it was this pair who combined to send them in leading 2-1 at half time after they had fallen behind only 10 minutes in.
Lancing had already threatened down the flanks when full back Grant Philpott made ground down the left and squared the ball for Tyler Goatcher to score with a side foot finish off the inside of Jack Simpson’s right-hand post. It was compensation for Goatcher who had earlier skied over a decent chance on the other side.
Titus Patterson went close from distance, but Hassocks rallied and on 27 minutes a sequence of events suggested it could be their day rather than Lancing’s.
It began when right back Dan Taylor was booked for needlessly kicking the ball away after conceding a free kick, which Anthony Hibbert whipped in dangerously and saw headed against his own bar by midfielder Adam Hunt.
Hunt and his Lancing teammates may have been relieved to see that cannon over for a corner but their respite was short lived as from the resulting set piece, the ball fell to Miles, who did well to work himself the room to fire in a shot from close range for 1-1.
It now looked a little more even and on 37 minutes the Robins caught their visitors with the perfect goal on the break.
They broke swiftly from a Lancing corner and Miles did superbly down the left flank before pulling the ball back for Gault to provide a clinical low finish.
Spencer Slaughter picked up a first-half injury and did not appear after the break, being replaced by summer signing from St Francis Rangers, Jake Forward.
And later the home side used their two other options as Louis Pople, another arrival from St Francis, replaced the admirable Miles and Nathan Cooper came on for newcomer Lee Bryant, signed from Combined Counties Premier outfit Horley Town.
Hassocks certainly had better luck with their changes than Lancing. Lee Garnham came on in a double change but was injured almost immediately when accidentally colliding with Simpson and then his replacement, Dan Turner, was on the field barely more than a minute before a foul on Chris Maynard led to referee Barrie Small showing a straight red card.
Although a clumsy challenge, the dismissal did seem a little harsh on Turner who was more justifiably sent off when the teams met at Culver Road last season.
The gap between Garnham’s introduction and Turner’s dismissal was no more than seven minutes and needless to say, losing two players filling the same position in such a short of space of time proved difficult for the visitors to cope with.
They were already 3-1 down by that point, Hassocks having scored their third on 64 minutes. Some clever football on the edge of the box enabled Gault to intelligently set up Hibbert for a blockbuster of a shot that bounced off the chest of keeper Jamie Bansco-Zaragoza and straight onto the head of James Westlake who was following up.
That put Robins on easy street and with Lancing’s performance tailing off, the hosts never seriously looked like surrendering their advantage.
Hassocks: Jack Simpson; Lee Bryant, Ashley Marsh, Kieran O’Callaghan, Chris Maynard; James Westlake, Anthony Hibbert, Spencer Slaughter, Jamie Weston; Nathan Miles, Phil Gault.
Subs: Jake Forward (Slaughter 45), Louis Pople (Miles 65), Nathan Cooper (Bryant 69).
Starman: No individual stood out and so it goes to the whole team for a solid performance and good result.
