A
POTENTIAL banana skin of a John O’Hara League Cup
tie was comfortably negotiated by Robins on Friday
night as they scored five times and could easily
have had more. Oak had the last word with a penalty
on the stroke of full time and in No 10 Titus
Paterson possessed a player who readily caught the
eye. But really it was over as a contest well before
half time as the hosts turned around 3-0 up and
scored again barely a minute after the break. It
took a while for Robins to find their feet against
Division 2 opponents and in truth there were
probably too many misplaced passes all night for
this to qualify as little more than a job
done.
Matt
Robbins impressed with his forceful runs from
midfield and it was one on 13 minutes that enabled
Anthony Hibbert to score with a less than convincing
strike that found Ben Heasman's bottom lefthand
corner. Soon after that referee Darren Eaton's
blushes were spared when he deflected a Hassocks
clearance into touch and from Daryl Livsey's long
throw the home side were fortunate not to concede an
equaliser. Big Paul Eaton then produced a couple of
bright moments for Oak, first getting over a good
cross that no-one got on the end of and then forcing
Hassocks skipper Joel Harding to save an angled
drive at the second attempt. But then Sam Fisk and
Matt Amos went close and Heasman pulled off two
excellent saves in rapid succession from Robbins and
Hibbert.
Hassocks
were finally on easy street after 32 minutes when a
good diagonal ball by Robbins found the impressive
Phil Gault, who despite appearing to have the ball
stuck under his feet still managed to dig out a shot
that found the same corner as Hibbert.
It was then game, set and match on the stroke of
half time when a corner was played short and
Hibbert's cross was headed into his own goal by
visiting skipper Steve Porter.
Any
faint hopes Oak may still have had were dashed
immediately after the restart when home defender
Peter Lear headed in a corner and after that
Hassocks could have made it embarrassing for their
visitors. However, little seems to be going right in
front of goal for Matt Amos after his impressive
first season although that's not unusual for one so
young and there can be no doubting his quality. That
was there for all to see when he did superbly to
cross for Gault to complete a simple tap-in from
close range five minutes from time. But referee
Eaton seemed to have it in for Brendan Leahy all
night and awarded a penalty against him right on
full time. It meant Phil Wickwar was finally beaten
after impressively deputising for Harding at half
time.
Harding
had played strapped up on Saturday and in the first
half of this match after injuring his groin and arm
in a fall downstairs but it was pointless to risk
him further with the tie virtually won. It also
meant he was unable to help Horsham YMCA out of a
goalkeeping problem on Saturday. Wickwar looked
totally confident, pulling off one fine save and
distributing the ball with great intelligence but he
was sent the wrong way by Paul Eaton’s spot kick.
But that was only a consolation for Oak in a
Hassocks win in which manager Dave John was able to
give Spencer Slaughter a run out and also hand a
late senior debut to Sam Franks.
Hassocks:
Harding, Turner, Marsh, Lear, Leahy, Thompson;
Hibbert, Robbins, Fisk; Gault, Amos
Subs:
Wickwar (Harding, 45), Slaughter (Thompson, 74),
Franks (Marsh, 82).
Middy
Starman: Matt Robbins, not everything came off but
he was always positive and available
