Hungry Hassocks dismantle Dockers

Hassocks 5 Newhaven 1, SCFL Premier Division match #38

A place in the end-of-season play-offs may have already been secured, but the Dockers travelled to Hassocks yesterday knowing a win would not only secure them a runner’s up spot but also give them home advantage in the play-off semi-final (and potentially final).

Yet the stakes were even bigger for Hassocks. A point would secure them their own place in Tuesday night’s semis, while a defeat would leave the Robins reliant (sorry, I couldn’t resist; I have to entertain myself somehow) on results elsewhere to confirm their participation.

Yet if this season’s surprise package were feeling any weight of expectation, then it didn’t show.

Right from the off, the hosts forced Newhaven onto the back foot, looking hungrier and working harder from the off.

They could have been in-front inside three minutes were it not for a fingertip save from Paul Woods (in for the absent Jake Buss) that diverted the ball just wide.

Not that they would be delayed too long in taking the lead. From the resulting corner, the ball was only half-cleared to Joe Bull whose speculative long-range effort squirmed through Woods’ grasp and found the back of the net.

With the Dockers struggling to find any attacking rhythm, on 22 minutes we were handed what should have been a huge route back into the game when Hassocks were reduced to ten men. Lee Robinson was adjudged to have been clipped by last man Dan Turner who was promptly given his marching orders.

Alfie Rogers’ subsequent free-kick was straight at the wall. It was to be our only shot of the half.

With Hassocks happy to sit back and deny Newhaven space, the half petered out with very little in the way of goalscoring opportunities.

It had been a dire performance from the Dockers. Our only hope was the belief that things could only get better in the second-half.

As it turned out they couldn’t. But they could get a whole lot worse!

Despite being a man down, it was Hassocks who once again started the second-half on the attack, their desire on full display. They were rewarded for their bravery eight minutes after the restart when Pat Harding took full advantage of some sloppy Newhaven defending to double Hassocks’ lead.

Despite still not doing an awful lot to warrant it, Newhaven did briefly find a way back into the game on the hour mark, when Lee Robinson got his head to Callum Edwards’ free-kick and managed to divert it, via a deflection, past the Hassocks goalkeeper.

Surely this would prove to be the spark Newhaven needed to finally get themselves going.

Alas, it wasn’t.  If anything, the goal only served to further ignite an already hardworking Hassocks side.

On 65 minutes, Jamie Wilkes headed home a third for the Robins, before Jack Troak made it four with 15-minutes remaining.

The game was up, and the shell-shocked Dockers knew it.

With frustrations starting to boil over, Demas Ramsis was sin-binned, to temporarily even up the numbers on the pitch (not that Hassocks needed any assistance in that respect), but he was back on by the time Harvey Blake put the icing on the cake with a fifth in injury-time.

A head-scratching afternoon for the Dockers who simply weren’t at the races and were duly punished. The only silver lining being that, from our perspective at least, this was not a do or die match. That comes on Tuesday.

Aside from home advantage now being ceded (we travel to Crowborough) not all that much has changed. There is still a chance of gaining promotion – and it’s still a more than decent one providing we can rediscover our form from earlier in the season and lift ourselves from the malaise that has dogged us in recent weeks.

If we were going to have a shocker (and this was a shocker, make no bones about it), then this was the time to do it. Get it out of the way. Forget about what’s gone before. Move onto the next one. Put things right. There is no more room for sloppiness.

And keep the belief.

We can still do this! Believe.

So, get yourselves to Crowborough on Tuesday night, with a positive mindset, and support the team. Regardless of what happened yesterday, we’re still two matches – or 180 minutes – from glory.

Come On You Dockers!

My man of the match (aka, the controversial part): Erm… pass.