BEEBEE BUZZES ON DEBUT BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH AS ROBINS ARE BEATEN BY BEARS
Two sides yet to taste victory in the Southern Combination League Under 23 North Division met at High Wood Hill Sports Ground as Broadbridge Heath hosted Hassocks.
And it was the Bears who got the monkey off their backs thanks to a 4-2 success in an entertaining game which could have gone either way. Once again, the Robins found themselves making wholesale changes from their previous outing.
Against Horley Town last Thursday, there were eight new faces from the starting XI who had lost against St Francis Rangers a week earlier. It was the same on this occasion as Hassocks switched another eight players around.
The only three survivors from the 1-1 draw with Horley were that night’s goal scorer George Galbraith-Gibbons, Joe Bull and Harvey Ransome. Dropping out were the injured Conor Evento, Charlie Alderton, Jake Chadwick, the suspended Ben Hicks, Jay Hudson, Charlie Jones, Luke Marshall and Dan Turner.
Coming into the side were goalkeeper Jayden Dunkley, Tom Jupp, Ben O’Leary, Josh Short, Brad Sweetman, Jamie Wilkes, Drew Matthews and Lewis Beebee.
The last of those two names were the most intriguing. For 20-year-old Matthews, this was his first appearance in a Hassocks shirt since signing from Burgess Hill Town, where he was a first team regular in the Isthmian League last season. Matthews had previously captained Crystal Palace’s youth team before being a surprise release in the summer of 2019 at the expiration of his contract.
Beebee meanwhile has been scoring goals for fun in Hassocks’ Under 18s over the past two seasons, including eight in the first three matches of 2020-21. He brought that form into the Under 23s, marking his first start for the side with both of the Hassocks goals at Broadbridge Heath.
Craig Goodsir kick started a topsy-turvy encounter when he gave Heath the lead with 15 minutes on the clock. Beebee levelled things up on 27 with his first of the evening just one minute after the Bears had suffered a blow when Sam Jobbins left the action injured.
Heath regained the lead going into half time through Regan Hillier nine minutes before the interval and their third arrived via substitute Louis Croal with 55 played. Substitute Croal had only replaced Matthew Blog four minutes earlier, proving to be an inspired replacement from the Heath management.
Beebee added his second on the hour mark to make it 3-2 but any hopes of a tense finish were extinguished when Conor Smith rounded off the scoring with Heath’s fourth five minutes from time.
Hassocks had a strong bench including Connor Bradley, Jay Hudson and George Mercer. They weren’t able to help the Robins make much headway late on however with Mercer finding his way in to referee Daniel Head’s book.
The result means that the Robins remain winless in the league ahead of attention turning to Sussex Under 23 Challenge Cup next Thursday. West Division opponents East Preston are the visitors to the Beacon, a side who the Robins have enjoyed some great battles with at Under 23 level through the years.
Kick off is at the slightly earlier time of 7:30pm to allow for the Beacon clubhouse to be closed by 10pm as per current government guidance.
Hassocks: Jayden Dunkley, Drew Matthews, Ben O’Leary, Tom Jupp, Harvey Ransome, Brad Sweetman, Joe Short, Jamie Wilkes, Joe Bull, George Galbraith-Gibbons, Lewis Beebee.
Subs: Connor Bradley, Jay Hudson, George Mercer (used).
