The 2018-19 season represents Hassocks’ 21st crack at the FA Cup with the Robins furthest run so far seeing them get to within two games of the first round proper. Here’s a look back at the club’s previous efforts in the world’s greatest cup competition…
Rattling the Rooks
Hassocks’ best run in the FA Cup came in the 2001-02 season when Dave John’s side made it to within two games of the first round proper. Lewes were the team who ended that most unlikely of dreams, triumphing 3-0 in the third qualifying round.
Ashford Town were seen off 3-2 in the Preliminary Qualifying Round to set up a date with Ash United in the First Qualifying Round. Nothing could separate the sides in the first game at the Beacon and so it was off to the Shawfield Stadium for a Tuesday night replay.
Three goals in six second half minutes were enough to win the tie for Hassocks and end Ash’s unbeaten start to the season as well. Marc Rendall notched the first in the 70th minute, bringing a Mickey Turner cross under control and slamming the ball into the bottom corner.
Home defender Stuart Woodhouse put through his own net with a volley from a quickly-taken Luke Flomo free kick five minutes later. And the Robins blitz was completed when Flomo teed up James Laing who beat two defenders to fire home. The result and performance earned Hassocks the applause of the Ash support and set the Robins up for a tie against Bromley from two divisions higher.
Not many people gave Hassocks a hope going into that one, but the Robins pulled off one of the shocks of the round by comfortably winning 2-0 at the Beacon. That set up a mouthwatering all-Sussex tie at the Dripping Pan where Jimmy Quinn’s Rooks proved to be too good for Hassocks.
Lewes would go onto make it all the way into the main draw, facing Stoke City at the Britania Stadium in the first round. The Robins meanwhile used the money generated from their cup run to build the Maurice Boxall Stand, which still stands on the south side of the Beacon today.
Nothing dull about Dulwich
Fast forward four seasons to the 2005-06 campaign and Hassocks nearly equaled that famous run, going out at the second qualifying round stage against Isthmian Premier side Dulwich Hamlet.
Being the only Southern Combination League side left in the competition by that point, there was a bumper crowd at the Beacon of over 300 who witnessed Hamlet squeak through by the tightest of 1-0 margins.
It took four games to get that far in the competition, victories over Erith Town and Chessington & Hook sandwiching two meetings with Hillingdon Borough following a draw at Hillingdon.
Pat Harding had a particularly good time of it, scoring four times in that cup run and he is one of only two former Robins to appear in the competition proper.
That was when he was a regular at Eastbourne Borough; the other player being Eddie French who was part of Horsham’s famous run that included taking Swansea City to a replay in the mid 2000’s.
Facing the big guns
The biggest side the Robins have faced in the FA Cup was Havant & Waterlooville in the First Qualifying Round in the 1998/99 season. That game saw a highly credible 1-0 defeat away at Westleigh Park, one of six exits at that particular stage of the competition for Hassocks.
We’ve faced Bromley – who can currently be found in the Conference National – on two other occasions aside from that 2001-02 run. Both of those came in the 1999-00 season, when the Ravens required a replay to knock the Robins out, eventually winning 2-1 at Hayes Road after a 1-1 draw at the Beacon.
That tie was set up by one of our most notable scalps in the competition, a 1-0 win away at Horsham, French scored the only goal of the game at Queens Road, heading home a Dickie Fernley corner in the 29th minute. The Hornets were unable to find a way past the inspired Paul John in the Hassocks goal after that and their heads dropped as a result for the final 20 minutes in which Hassocks could’ve made the game safe.
Laing was denied twice by Horsham’ debutant goalkeeper Phil Lewis and Lewis also saved well from a powerful Adam Waller drive. The shock result saw Hornets boss Russell Mason quit as manager in the immediate aftermath.
Hassocks’ heaviest FA Cup defeat came in the First Qualifying Round in 2010-11, a 5-0 away defeat at an impressive Sholing side, a game that was overshadowed by Chris Maynard suffering a terrible double leg break that would rule him out for the best part of a year.
That season was also responsible for the Robins’ biggest ever FA Cup win when Eastbourne United were hammered 7-1 at the Beacon in the Extra Preliminary Round of the competition. Maynard scored twice that day along with a Neil Kane brace and further goals from Anthony Hibbert, Daley Clark and Dan Smith.
Aside from the big loss at Sholing, there have been a couple of other heavy defeats in the First Qualifying Round, with Tonbridge Angels and Sittingbourne both winning 3-0.
The most recent time Hassocks made it as far as the First Qualifying Round was in the 2013-14 season under the management of Mickey Jewell. That run included a rare victory at Gorings Mead against fellow Southern Combination League side Horsham YMCA – only Hassocks’ third win there since the turn of the century – and a 1-0 replay victory over Dorking Wanderers after a 0-0 draw at Westhumble Playing Fields.
Isthmian South side Chipstead provided the opponents in the fourth game in the competition with the visitors winning 2-1 at the Beacon. The Robins were good value for the draw that day however and would’ve had a replay three days later were it not for a last minute penalty miss from Phil Gault.
Gault did suitably punish himself afterwards, spending the evening drowning his sorrows in notorious Burgess Hill nightspot Jacobs Post.
Learning the ropes
It took Hassocks a few seasons to learn the ropes of national cup competitions – that aforementioned Horsham win was the clubs first in the competition, coming at the fourth season of asking.
Hassocks’ first ever FA Cup game came in the Preliminary Round in the 1996/97 season, a 3-1 home defeat against Egham Town.
The following season saw a 2-1 defeat against Barton Rovers while there have been four other exits at the preliminary stage; to Molesey 3-0, Merstham 3-1, Walton & Hersham 3-0 and most disappointingly, a heavy 4-0 loss at Mill Road against fellow Southern Combination League club Arundel in 2003-04.
Over and out as early as possible
The Extra Preliminary Round was added to the competition in the 2005-06 season and Hassocks exited at that earliest point of the competition in six of the last eight seasons that they’ve entered the competition.
The first of those came in 2008/09, a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Shoreham played at Culver Road due to the summer pitch works at the Beacon not being completed in time to host the tie. Kane was still a Shoreham player at that point and he got the only goal of the game for the Mussell’s.
By the time Hassocks were knocked out of the following seasons competition he was in a Hassocks shirt, part of Dave John’s side which crashed out 4-1 at home to Ash United.
Back-to-back Extra Preliminary Round exits came in 2011-12 away at Raynes Park Vale and a shock reversal at home to Sidley United in 2012-13.
Hassocks’ two most recent voyages into the FA Cup also came to an end at the Extra Preliminary Round when they were well beaten 3-1 by Epsom and Ewell in 2014 and last season as Hollands and Blair ran out 3-2 winners at the Beacon.
