Rangers
old boy Sam Jeremiah dealt his old
team-mates a savage blow with a superbly
taken winner three minutes into the second
half of Monday’s typically dour local
derby. Roy Staughton’s team must still be
wondering how they came away with nothing
from the game but there was no disguising
the delight of Robins boss Dave John at the
end. He tacitly accepted that on the balance
of play it was a bit of a steal but praised
his injury-hit squad for their efforts.
“When you think we had a tough game two
days earlier when they were without a match
and it was tough going out there, I thought
we did superbly,” he said at the end.
Amazingly,
Hassocks have just two matches left, whereas
Rangers face a tough run-in of nine games
and would desperately like a couple more
wins in order to breathe a little easier.
And while they should have taken at least a
point from this match, nothing can ever be
taken for granted and when keeper Simon
Lehkyj’s poor clearance landed at the feet
of Jeremiah only just over the halfway line,
he showed great coolness and a fair degree
of skill on a heavy surface to lob the ball
into an unguarded net.
In
a disappointing first half Rangers had the
only clear chances and they all came after
an opening half hour in which neither keeper
was troubled. Joel Harding then did well to
turn aside Brannon O’Neill’s low drive
and Geoff Pitcher was just about to pull the
trigger from the rebound when a great
challenge by Ian Simpson denied him. When
the same Rangers pair were involved again,
Harding did even better to deny Pitcher at
the far post and then did enough to force
Elliott Butler to take the ball too far
after rounding him when a Simpson error
looked like being punished in stoppage time.
After
that brilliant piece of opportunism by
Jeremiah early in the second half, things
opened up markedly and while both sides had
some half chances, understandably, it was
Rangers who did most of the pressing as the
clock ticked around. There was another
excellent Harding save on the hour although
he knew he should really have come for the
cross that Jamie Weston headed goalwards but
four minutes later it needed an instinctive
foot out by Lehkyj to deny Phil Gault, who
was a major positive influence for Hassocks
in the second half.
Matt
Carruthers, O’Neill and Pitcher missed
probably the best of the Rangers chances and
as frustration mounted for the hosts, there
were bookings for Carruthers, Pitcher and
sub Sam Palmer.
Hassocks: Harding; Kublickas, Marsh, Lear, I
Simpson, Thompson; Gault, Hibbert, Miles;
Amos, Jeremiah.
Subs:
Laing (Amos, 69), Bates (Miles, 74), Kane
(Jeremiah, 79).
Starman: Richard Thompson gets the vote
because he hardly put a foot wrong all
match
