Big night in the relegation battle and nothing can separate Hassocks and Saltdean United

This was a game that neither side could afford to lose. Both sides got their wish in that regard, but by full time they could also both have laid justifiable claims to being worthy of three points.

The hosts had more of the ball but were only able to force Charlie Pugh into one meaningful save.

Hassocks by contrast had to defend for their lives at times and yet managed to miss three glorious chances to add to Alex Spinks’ first half volley. It was a strange evening.

An important one, too. Saltdean and Hassocks weren’t the only sides in the bottom six meeting as some 27 miles to west, 16th placed East Preston were hosting 18th placed Pagham at the Lashmar.

That went the way of the visitors as Pagham made it three wins in a row to climb out of the relegation zone for the first time this season.

The Lions are now four points clear of Hassocks having played a game more.

The gap between the Robins and EP is down to five with Hassocks having three game in hand.

Saltdean stay eight ahead having played twice more while Lingfield’s 3-0 defeat at Lancing dropped them to 18th, two points better off than the Robins.

There will no doubt be plenty more twists and turns to come in what is shaping up to be an intriguing fight to avoid the drop into Division One.

Should Hassocks be successful in doing so, then they will look back on this as a valuable point.

Little of note happened in the opening 15 minutes, save for the crowd admiring Hassocks’ cheery new yellow away kit and taking in the surprise return of James Westlake to first team duty.

Westlake has spent the past couple of months combining appearances for the Under 23s with his running commitments and this was his first game of senior football since December 2018.

It took just 26 minutes for Westlake to make his mark as he played a part in the Hassocks goal.

Some neat play down the right between Westlake, Dan Stokes and Liam Benson earned a throw which Dan Turner came forward to launch into the box.

Turner’s trebuchet caused chaos and with Saltdean unable to effectively clear their lines, Spinks was on hand to crash a crisp volley past the home goalkeeper.

A timely moment for the Hassocks captain to score his first for the club.

Saltdean had gone ahead eight minutes earlier through Dan Perry, scoring his 27th of the season after taking advantage of some slack marking to glance home a cross.

Twenty two of Perry’s total were scored for Eastbourne Town earlier in the season.

Convincing one of the Premier Division’s leading strikers to swap a title chase at the Saffrons for a relegation battle at Hill Park was an extraordinary piece of transfer business from the Saltdean hierarchy and one which could go a long way towards ensuring their survival.

Hassocks know only too well what a difference a talismanic marksman can make, given that they’ve had to do without the services of Phil Johnson for most of this season thanks to a succession of injuries.

You’d certainly have backed the Robins to get all three points had Johnson been playing here with the opportunities that they created.

Three of their chances should have led to goals. There were two minutes of the first half remaining when Benson sprung the offside trap with a perfectly timed run to latch onto Jack Troak’s through ball, but his effort was too close to keeper.

Midway through the second half and Westlake drew an excellent stop from the Saltdean number one.

The loose ball fell to Benson who looked certain to roll into an empty net, only for some desperate defending from the hosts to scramble it behind for a corner.

Then in the 89th minute, Westlake had a near-identical one-on-one to Benson’s first half effort kept out after the Saltdean defence misjudged substitute Jamie Hillwood’s ball over the top.

At the other end, Pugh’s only real save came on 70 minutes when Perry brilliantly played in the home captain but his effort from six yards out, front and centre was somehow repelled by Hassocks’ young number one.

Perry himself put a free header over shortly afterwards when the Saltdean right back hung a cross up to the back post, but other than that Pugh had a largely quiet evening save for expertly gathering a couple of set piece deliveries.

His unemployment was largely down to the efforts of his defenders.

For all Saltdean’s possession, they struggled to find a way past Hassocks’ two best players on the night - Turner who headed everything and Will Broomfield who turned into a one-man blocking machine.

Hassocks: Pugh; Blake, Turner, Broomfield, Troak; Stokes, J Westlake, Spinks, Enticknap, Littlejohn; Benson.

Subs: Hillwood (Spinks).