Hassocks suffer biggest ever home defeat as Horley Town run riot

The Clarets are the only side who remain unbeaten in the Premier Division and based on this showing, it will take some effort to stop them winning the title in only their second season in the Southern Combination League following a sideways move from the Combined Counties in 2019.

Anthony Jupp's side knocked the ball around well, were superbly organised and scored some excellent goals among their rather large haul.

The only gripe one could have is that they were perhaps a little too keen to get on the backs of the officials, although referee Daniel Cooper did not enjoy the best of afternoons with a series of mystifying decisions that left both teams baffled.

Chief among those was the red card flashed to Jake Chadwick with four minutes remaining.

The Hassocks midfielder accidentally tripped Horley’s Lewis Pearch and despite the pleas of even the visiting players that it was never worthy of a yellow card, Mr Cooper showed Chadwick his second booking.

George Brown had been sent off five minutes earlier although there could be no defence of him, Brown picking up a straight red for a tirade directed at Mr Cooper.

Those two dismissals played their parts in the scoreline; before Brown was sent off, it was ’only’ 5-0 to Horley. Two of the Clarets’ final three goals came once Hassocks were down to nine and those remaining on the pitch appeared to have thrown in the towel slightly.

Hassocks were also dealt an injury blow when goalkeeper Conor Evento limped off with a leg problem eight minutes into the second half.

This was Evento’s second appearance since signing from Broadbridge Heath with his Hassocks career so far enjoying the sort of bad luck that suggests he must have broken several mirrors before making the move to the Beacon.

Evento pulled his thigh early on in his debut against Eastbourne Town. With no goalkeeper on the bench, he completed the 90 at the Saffrons despite playing on only one leg.

Hassocks did at least have a replacement custodian among their substitutes this time in Under 18s goalkeeper Jayden Dunkley.

He entered proceedings in place of Evento at 3-0 but could do little about the following five goals, given the red cards and quality of Horley’s finishing.

The visitors took the lead with 10 minutes on the clock when Sean O’Toole gobbled up the rebound after Evento saved a Kevin Moreno-Gomez drive from distance.

Hassocks had a chance to equalise on 16 when Will Broomfield collected a half-cleared Charlie Pitcher free kick, whipping a cross into the box which Horley goalkeeper George Hyde got just enough of a touch on to take off the head of Harvey Enticknap who looked certain to score.

Richard Pingling struck a penalty against Evento’s post with 21 minutes played but that miss didn’t matter as within 120 seconds, O’Toole drilled an effort from outside the box across Evento and into the bottom corner to double the advantage.

O’Toole injured himself in the process and his enforced substitution rocked Horley a little as Hassocks enjoyed their best spell.

James Littlejohn earned a free kick on the edge of the box which Bradley Bant curled just wide and when visiting defender Jack Poplett fell over to leave Littlejohn in one-on-one, it took an excellent double save from Hyde to prevent the Robins pulling one back.

Visiting skipper Ryan Brackpool lost his mind with Mr Cooper on both occasions and was lucky to escape with only a yellow for getting in the official’s face twice in the space of three minutes.

Horley’s third arrived on 38 when Adam Grant bent a stunning effort into the top corner, at which point the home crowd began to sense their team might need to resort to an effort in damage limitation in the second half.

Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse. Grant rounded off a brilliant passing move which sliced through Hassocks by skipping around Dunkley and finishing via a post to add the fourth just three minutes after Dunkley had been forced into the action.

Pingling added the fifth on 80 with a towering header from Hyde’s cross, Brown saw red two minutes later and 60 seconds after that Horley had their sixth with another distance effort bent into the top corner, this time from Lewis Pearch.

Chadwick’s dismissal left Hassocks in the strange position of trying to time waste at 6-0 down to prevent the score getting any worse but it made little difference as two goals in stoppage time wrote an unwanted piece of Hassocks history.

Tony Halsey added the seventh in the 90th minute with Grant completing his hat-trick with a header in the fifth minute of injury time before the whistle finally blew to put Hassocks out of their misery.

Hassocks: Evento; Gardner, Broomfield, Brown, Whittingham; Enticknap, Bant, Chadwick, Short; Littlejohn, Pitcher.

Subs: Bull (Short 46), Dunkley (Evento 53), O’Leary (Bull 63), Marshall, Beebee (unused).