Phil Johnson scored his 50th goal for Hassocks in Bank Holiday Monday’s 4-1 defeat to Saltdean United, becoming only the 11th player in the clubs history to notch a half century in senior football.
Johnson’s strike just past the hour mark was his fourth of a season that continues to get better and better following his summer return to the Beacon from Horsham YMCA.
He’s bought up the landmark in 114 games since making his debut in the 2007-08 season, the same campaign he notched a sensational hat-trick for the under 18s as they lifted the Southern Combination Youth League Cup with a 3-2 final win over Arundel.
University commitments meant that although Johnson made his debut towards the end of that season, it was only four seasons later that he became a first time regular under Mickey Jewell’s management in 2011-12.
He scored nine times in 39 games that season, adding four more from nine appearances in 2012-13 and seven in 20 in 2013-14 as again his studies prevented regular football.
Phil Gault’s departure to Haywards Heath Town and Nathan Miles’ injury problems gave Johnson the opportunity to become the Robins lead striker in 2014-15 and he grabbed it with both hands, scoring 26 times in 39 games despite being regularly found in Burgess Hill’s popular nightspots The Railway and Jacobs Post on a Friday night.
Those goals fired Hassocks to a Great Escape from relegation and earned Johnson a move to Burgess Hill Town and then a prolific two and a half year spell with YM.
Johnson has some way to go to catch Gault who stands head and shoulders above anyone else in the top 10 with 185 goals from 33 appearances.
Gault is followed by James Laing on 143 goals from 351 games with Pat Harding in third having scored 131 times in 195 games which gives Harding comfortably the best goals-to-game ratio.
Anthony Hibbert is fourth with 124, a remarkable total for a midfielder with 462 appearances to his name and the top five is rounded off by popular 90’s striker Robbie Kitchen who netted 123 in 323.
Johnson’s former under 18 team striker partner Nathan Miles is sixth with 74 in 211 appearances, a total that Johnson will surpass if he keeps up his current goals-to-game ratio throughout the remainder of the season.
In seventh is Neil Smith with 68, eighth is Steve Hards with 65, ninth comes the Robins record appearance maker Mickey Turner with 63 from his 594 games and the top 10 is rounded off by Dave Smith with 53.
