Sussex County League Division 1
Saturday 03rd October 2009
ROBINS GAIN HARD EARNED POINT
Lingfield 1-1 Hassocks

Hassocks earned a hard fought point at unbeaten Lingfield and were only denied an excellent victory by the woodwork, with both Michael Bates and Dan Jacques being denied late on. Once again the Robins led but as in previous outings against Arundel, Three Bridges and Peacehaven failed to hold onto the lead and they had to settle for a fifth draw of the campaign.

Both sides tried to play decent football but a mixture of a swirling wind and hard ground made the ball difficult to bring under control, Lingfield in particularly playing the ball forward early to their powerful front 3 of Joel Greaves, Andrew Dalehouse and the tricky Joel Hughes. Although they caused a few problems with their pace, Joel Harding only had one meaningful shot to save in the first period, when he reacted superbly to a deflected Steve Cant effort, after being initially wrong footed. Greaves headed wide and Phil Gault tested Tim Roberts from distance before he gave Hassocks the lead on 38 minutes, brilliantly lobbing the oncoming Roberts from James Laing’s excellent through ball. It was Gault’s 5^th goal since returning from St Francis Rangers.

Early in the 2^nd half Hughes tested Harding from long range and Dan Jacques earned a booking for tripping him, one of quite a few fouls on the winger, with Ashley Marsh also finding his way into the notebook for a similar offence. Terry Gacias limped off with a hamstring injury and his replacement, Michael Bates rattled the Lingfield crossbar with an excellent strike from 20 yards, his first touch of the ball.

Almost immediately Bronek Dabrona did the same at the Hassocks end following a scramble before somewhat fortunately Lingfield equalised on 78. Olly Young’s cross from the right was parried away low down by Harding only to ricochet twice off Sam McCarthy, the second time off his shoulder and nestle agonisingly in the Robins net. Within 30 seconds Hassocks almost regained the lead, good link up play from Gault and Hibbert set up Jacques for a fine volley from the edge of the box which smashed back off the post and away to safety.

Hassocks: Harding, Jacques, Kublickas, Marsh, Bowra, Faith, Gacias, Slaughter, Hibbert, Gault, Laing

Subs: Bates (Gacias 62), Kane (Laing 82), Gault (Woods 90), Scarse, Gander (unused)

Starman – Good all-round team performance, especially at the back against difficult opponents but just goes to Dan Jacques who did pretty well against the lively Joel Hughes.