Badger back with a bang to earn Sweetman his first point in charge
It was a case of the old helping the new when AFC Uckfield Town came to the Beacon, where former Hassocks captain Jordan Badger made a fairy tale return to football after a two-year absence by scoring a late equaliser to give new head coach Brad Sweetman his first point in charge of the Robins.
Badger last kicked a competitive ball in the 2018-19 season, stepping back at the end of the campaign to focus on work commitments. On Saturday night though, Sweetman managed to convince Badger to dust off his boots.
72 hours later and the decision paid off handsomely as he helped Hassocks secure a 2-2 draw against opponents whom they always seem to put on a show with.
The last 12 editions of Robins v Oakmen have now featured at least three goals, earning it a reputation as one of the most entertaining games on the Premier Division circuit.
This clash was no exception, a ding-dong tie which ebbed and flowed from end-to-end at breakneck speed in a fabulous advert for non-league football.
Sweetman made six changes from the side who lost 2-1 to Eastbourne Town at the weekend. Lewis Beebee and George Mitchell-Phillips returned in attack, Lexx Lucas took over from the injured Charlie Tuck in midfield, there were full debuts for Ben Hicks and Kobe Dersley at left and right wing back and perhaps most importantly, Charlie Pugh made his first start of the season in goal.
Pugh made five saves of the highest quality over the course of the 90 minutes, going a long way towards ensuring that Uckfield did not leave with what would have been their fifth successive win over Hassocks.
Uckfield began the game as the better side although they had to wait until the 13th minute to call Pugh into action when he was forced into punching away a dangerous looking George Cook corner.
Cook and former Hassocks midfielder Jamie Wilkes were at the heart of most of Uckfield’s good stuff, including when linking up to release a surging Morgan Vale who just failed to connect with a ball into the box.
Uckfield eventually turned their dominance into a goal on the half hour mark, Aaron Baker delivering a pinpoint cross onto the head of Luke Blewden who made it 1-0.
The Hassocks response to that setback was instant and impressive. Four minutes later and an incisive move up the pitch was finished off coolly by Alfie Loversidge, the teenage midfielder scoring his second goal in four appearances this season.
Uckfield seemed shocked by conceding and suddenly it was the Robins’ turn to be in the ascendency as they laid siege to the visitors goal in the final 10 minutes of the half.
It took some determined defending from Callum Ridley in particular to keep Hassocks out and Uckfield were no doubt grateful to make it to half time without conceding again.
Steve Ives and his players made the most of the opportunity to regroup at the interval and they flew out of the traps to take the lead within 60 seconds of the restart.
The Robins defence appeared to have their minds still on their half time refreshments as hesitant defending was ruthlessly punished by Sam Carrington to put Uckfield back into the lead.
Cook had strong penalty appeals waved away by referee Daniel D’Urso on the hour mark before the Pugh Show began in earnest. Carrington was the first to be denied via a routine stop. There was nothing routine however about Pugh’s next save, a stunning tip over at full stretch of a Cook effort from 30 yards.
An outrageous triple save to deny Carrington followed, those three opportunities coming from a sweeping move up the pitch after Uckfield goalkeeper Jason Tibble had been alert to keep out a Mitchell-Phillips effort.
Wilkes failed to test Pugh with Uckfield’s next opportunity after substitute Farrell Ryder made it to the by-line. That proved to be Uckfield’s last chance as Hassocks began to exert a lot of pressure in the final 10 minutes, helped by Sweetman’s decision to throw defender Badger on as an emergency striker.
Badger has filled such a role before, famously as a youngster at Lewes when he scored twice when introduced as a centre forward to rescue the Rooks a 3-3 draw from 3-1 down away at Kingstonian.
You will have to ask Badger if his latest heroics eclipse those feats but you could see how much this 87th minute goal meant to his teammates, who celebrated wildly once Badger reacted quickest to toe poke home in a scramble caused by a downward header from a corner.
Hassocks might have even won it in injury time. Another ex-Robin in Sam Cash was lucky to escape with a yellow after a crunching last man foul on the edge of the box appeared to deny the hosts a goal scoring opportunity.
The Robins wanted a penalty and a red card but they got neither, with the resulting free kick posing more danger to passing traffic on the A273 than Tibble’s goal.
Hassocks: Charlie Pugh; Arthur Rawlingson, Bradley Tighe, Andy Whittingham; Kobe Dersley, Josh Short, Lexx Lucas, Alfie Loversidge, Ben Hicks; George Mitchell-Phillips, Lewis Beebee.
Subs: Joe Bull, Jordan Badger, Sam Geard (used), Jude Wallace, Christian Kiddell (unused).
