Hassocks quick on the draw in Steyning and Crawley clashes

Steyning 1-1 Hassocks

With both Steyning Town and Hassocks safe from relegation, there was little to play for when the sides who sit 16th and 17th in the Southern Combination League Premier Division met at the Shooting Field.

It was to both teams credit then that they still put on a decent show, especially in the first half when most of the chances arrived and both goals were scored in a 1-1 draw.

The spoils being shared was probably the right result, even though home goalkeeper Stefanos Akras was the best player on the pitch.

He denied the Robins from adding to Jack Troak's early opener with three saves of the highest class and was also involved in the game's major talking point midway through the first half.

That saw Lewis Westlake clip a long ball forward for Josh Short to chase. Akras came haring from his goal and as Short beat him to the ball and rounded him, the two collided.

Short now had an open net to fire into and so Akras cleverly grabbed his head.

The general consensus from those who had the best view of the incident watching from the stand was that Akras had been caught on the shoulder, but from the position that referee Nick Blogg was in, it must have appeared a head injury.

Mr Blogg subsequently stopped the game, denying Short the most routine of goals.

Hassocks were incensed and even though Mr Blogg was right to want halt proceedings for a potential head injury you could understand why; they almost certainly would have gone onto win had they gone 2-0 ahead.

It was a lead they deserved too after dominating the opening 25 minutes. To make matters worse, the decision seemed to take the wind out of the Robins' sails and Steyning equalised shortly afterwards with their first shot on target.

Hassocks had gone ahead with only seven minutes on the clock. Dan Turner charged over to the touchline to use one of his famous long throws, launching the ball 50 yards down the pitch deep into Steyning territory.

The Barrowmen worked the ball back to a surprised Akras, who dallied in possession for a second too long. Troak closed him down, won the ball and then rolled into an empty goal to make it 1-0.

Akras atoned for his part in the opener with his first outrageous stop of the afternoon five minutes later.

Lewis Westlake played a long ball over the top to set Short away and his powerful drive looked destined for the bottom corner until Akram somehow repelled it with a strong arm.

The Steyning goalkeeper made an even more impressive save just before the phantom head injury incident. Lewis Westlake swung over a corner which young Luke Marshall met with a towering header.

Akras though threw himself into the air and got the most important of touches on the ball, pushing it onto the crossbar as Steyning again survived.

The Barrowmen’s quest to find a way back into the game appeared to get a little harder when Bobby Bennett limped out of proceedings with around 30 minutes played.

Steyning though made light work of losing their leading striker. They finished the first half the stronger side and scored with their first real effort at Alex Harris five minutes before the interval.

A left wing cross from Max Howell was met by a flicked header from the in-form Josh Bradley, scoring for the fifth time in Steyning’s past five matches.

Chances were at a premium after the break. Hassocks struggled to make much headway whilst Steyning could find no way past Turner, who was a one-man blocking and heading machine.

The only thing Turner did not win on the day was the post-game meat raffle drawn in the Clubhouse afterwards. One of the prizes did at least go to someone with Hassocks connections, the dad of suspended defender Bradley Tighe and substitute Wes picking up a nice prize to take home.

In football terms, Hassocks had the only chances of note in a second half which drifted somewhat compared to the entertainment of the first.

Another Lewis Westlake corner caused problems for the home side on 58 minutes. This time, Short met it with a header as good as Marshall’s in the first half. Unfortunately for Hassocks, Akras pulled off an equally impressive save to keep it out.

Then on 81, it took a combination of Akras and defender Joe Fitzpatrick to ensure the Robins were not victorious.

Short led the Steyning defence on a merry dance, skipping past three defenders before firing a shot towards the bottom corner that Akras kept out.

The loose ball fell to James Westlake, who looked certain to score. That was until Fitzpatrick appeared from nowhere to make a superb sliding block which sent the ball behind for a corner.

Hassocks 0-0 Crawley Down Gatwick

When Hassocks and Crawley Down Gatwick normally meet, goals are guaranteed. Not so this Easter Monday clash between the sides at the Beacon, which finished scoreless.

Both teams seemed to cancel each other out, which perhaps should not have come as a surprise given the familiarity between them.

Not only was this their fourth meeting in the space of seven months, but Down named four ex-Robins in their starting XI and one more on the bench. It would have been even more had the Anvils' top scorer Charlie Pitcher not had to settle for watching from the sidelines.

Even in the absence of the 32-goal Pitcher, Down could still call upon former Hassocks favourite Phil Johnson and Oli Leslie, who have found the back of the net over 40 times between them this season.

The Robins deserved a lot of credit for their defensive performance in ensuring that Alex Harris did not have a meaningful save to make all morning despite the potent attacking threat posed by the visitors.

At the other end, Alex Bellingham made a succession of fine stops to frustrate Hassocks.

The Robins have been unfortunate to come up against two goalkeepers in fine form in the space of 48 hours, having been kept similarly at bay by Steyning Town's Stefanos Akras in Saturday's 1-1 draw at the Shooting Field.

Without the performances of Akras and Bellingham - or with slightly more clinical finishing - Hassocks might well have taken six points out of six over the weekend rather than just two.

The first half under the Mid Sussex sun took some time to get going, not helped by there being breaks in play every couple of minutes for niggly little fouls.

Lewis Westlake had an intriguing battle with former teammate Harvey Enticknap, and Johnson and Bradley Tighe also caused referee Harry Wood to halt proceedings on more than one occasion.

It was another of the former Hassocks contingent in Harvey Blake though who was the recipient of the first yellow card on 25 minutes.

He put Alfie Loversidge in a chicken wing chokehold when the young Robins forward attempted to break clear of the Down defence.

That was not the first time Loversidge found himself in the wars. He also took a boot to the head prior to his tangle with Blake when attempting to get on the end of a Bradley Bant header down in a half-chance for Hassocks with eight on the clock.

Blake's booking did at least seem to calm things down, leading to a bit more action in both boxes. Alfie Edmeads made a superbly timed last ditch tackle on Michael Wood who was about to deliver a dangerous cross towards a lurking Johnson.

Down defender Shaun Finlay then blocked a crisp Loversidge volley following an aerial Jack Troak pass.

A crunching Dan Turner tackle on Johnson led to Tighe playing a 60 yard ball into the path of Josh Short down the left channel to create Hassocks' next chance.

Short found himself one-on-one with Bellingham but the angle was a little too tight and the effort drifted wide of the far post.

The Robins best opportunity of the game came three minutes before half time.

A heavy deflection off a Down defender looked like it would help a Short effort from outside the box defy Bellingham, until the visiting goalkeeper showed great reactions to keep the ball out.

Better was to come from Bellingham with the follow up. James Westlake looked certain to put the loose ball into the unguarded net until Bellingham appeared from nowhere to complete a remarkable double save.

The second half was even slower to come to life than the first. Short was wiped out on the edge of the box on 68 minutes and Lewis Westlake nearly marked his 100th Hassocks appearance with a goal, only to see his free kick curled around the wall clawed out of the bottom corner by the sprawling Bellingham.

A series of substitutions livened things up for the final quarter of an hour. Down replacement Luke Donaldson looked like he was going to trouble Harris with a well-hit effort after the Robins failed to deal with a cross, only for Tighe to make a fine block.

Troak was then able to take advantage of the tie opening up to scamper clear on two occasions.

He nearly caught Bellingham by surprise by opting to take an early shot from 25 yards with space still to run into. The Down keeper just about got down in time, scooping the ball away.

When a towering Turner header from the resulting corner was blocked on the line by the fourth member of the ex-Hassocks club Will Broomfield, you sensed that this was not going to be Hassocks' day in front of goal.

That was confirmed the second time Troak ran clear, released in the third minute of injury time by substitute Charlie Broad, only to be denied by the legs of Bellingham.

Hassocks: Harris; Rawlingson, Turner, B Tighe, Edmeads; Bant, J Westlake, L Westlake, Troak; Loversidge, Short.

Subs: Bull (Bant 72), Broad (Loversidge 81), W Tighe, Marshall, Dunkley (unused).