Sidley hit for six by Hassocks

Although well short of full strength, this was Sidley's 11th defeat in 12 away games in Sussex Division One.

Much of the damage was done in the first half as the Blues went two-down inside the first dozen minutes and 4-1 adrift by half time.

"It was a bad performance," admitted joint manager Andy Laskey, "and it was just so frustrating that it followed a good performance. It was a team that we thought we could possibly get at least a point from, but we were always going to struggle because in the end we had six out from the week before."

Mid-table Hassocks went ahead inside three minutes when the division's second leading goalscorer, Pat Harding, dispatched a looping half-volley over goalkeeper Peter Newstead.

One became two eight minutes later when Harding raced through to notch his second and the influential Richard Thomas headed home via the underside of the crossbar to make it 3-0 after just 25 minutes.

Sidley, who handed a debut to new signing Craig Willard, gave themselves a glimmer of hope 12 minutes later when Baker turned and fired into the bottom corner after receiving a pass from Steve Morris, but Harding completed his treble and restored Hassocks' three-goal cushion less than a minute later.

Graeme Beveridge made it 5-1 some 20 minutes into the second period, Dave Carey pulled one back with a delicate chipped finish from Morris' through ball five minutes later and Thomas completed the scoring with 18 minutes to go.

Although comprehensively beaten, Sidley, who gave first senior appearances of the season to substitutes Simon Corke and Lee Wood, did have their moments because Baker saw a penalty saved and Dave Ward passed up another golden opportunity.

"We made four individual errors for the first four goals," Laskey added, "but it could quite easily have been 6-6."