Late Lancing show ruins Robins and gets firework night started early

Playing Lancing away has proven a trickier task than the Southern Combination Premier Division table suggests for several promotion hopefuls over the past six months.

Hassocks were the latest to struggle at the Go Cardless Stadium. The Robins led 1-0 as late as the 87th minute. Yet they trudged off at the final whistle as 3-1 losers after the home side delivered fireworks three hours before their village's annual display got underway on Lancing Beach Green.

James Westlake did not try and sugar-coat things afterwards, saying: "We were terrible today. Just really poor. Even at 1-0 up, I don't think we ever had control."

"We said to the lads in the changing room afterwards it wasn't good enough and they're fully aware. Full credit to Lancing though - we could all see their comeback coming from the side lines."

Yes, we could. The longer the game went on without Hassocks looking remotely like doubling the lead given to them by Jack Troak on the half hour mark, the more obvious it seemed they would not be heading home with three points. 

Having said that and whilst an equaliser felt inevitable, not many would have foreseen Lancing scoring three times in the space of seven minutes. The Hassocks collapse was quite spectacular.

And not to try and give the Robins excuses. but Lancing do at least have previous for last gasp heroics. They scored an injury time equaliser to draw with title favourites East Grinstead Town on Tuesday night.

The Lancers also beat Haywards Heath Town here back in April via an 86th minute free kick from a certain Omar Abdsami which effectively ended the Bluebells hopes of being crowned champions last season.

A strong wind was blowing north-south across the pitch and it had a big bearing on the spectacle. So little happened through the opening exchanges that conversation amongst the sizeable away contingent focused on why the Culver Road ‘scoreboard’ which used to show the time, temperature but not the score had been taken down.

Then someone asked why it even needed to show the temperature. Nobody could come up with a suitable reason. Thankfully, Troak managed to snap attention back to the football by putting Hassocks ahead on 32 minutes with the second shot on target either team mustered.

Abdsami had the first against his old club when placing an effort into the legs of Lancers goalkeeper Elliot Dailly. That came about after a high press from the Robins front two of Troak and tall striker Jamie Wilkes helped turn over possession.

Troak was leading the line in his latest positional change having enjoyed himself as an overlapping centre back over the last few matches.

It left him in the right place to convert an Abdsami cross with his fifth bite of the cherry having chested and then scuffed the ball slowly towards the goal line with attempts one, two, three and four.

“That is the worst goal I've ever seen,” said the rangy Wilkes in the celebratory huddle. More problematic than the quality of it was that Hassocks were unable to add another at any point over the next hour.

A second probably would have killed the game off rather than allowing the Lancers to launch their spirited late revival.

Ed Cooper was called into action for the first time minutes before the break, making a fine save with his legs to deny Gabe Robinson. That totalled three noteworthy shots on target in the entire first half.

The entertainment levels did not improve in the early stages of the second half either. A setting sun straight into the face of Dailly forced the Lancing goalkeeper into wearing a baseball cap but Hassocks never made enough of the visibility issues.

What made that particularly disappointing is Devon Fender showed the Robins early in the second half just how difficult it was for Dailly to see the ball coming at him through the air out of the sun.

Fender took a cross-shot which under normal circumstances would have been a routine catch. Dailly only just managed to palm the ball around the post.

Gambling on more pot shots could have given Hassocks a second goal. Instead, the only real effort they managed came on 80 minutes.

Substitutes Liam Benson and Big Alex Fair combined to win a corner which Abdsami swung over. The ball fell to Dan Turner, whose volley on the spin was blocked on the line by Ryan Plummer.

That Plummer intervention looked even more important when Lancing started the turnaround with 87 minutes played. Hassocks fell asleep defending a corner, leaving Archie McGonigle to power home a free header.

Dailly immediately went down despite not having been near the ball for five minutes. Some treatment allowed the Lancers to have a team talk with manager Dale Hurley, much to the Robins' chagrin.

Whatever Hurley said to Lancing had the desired effect as they took the lead two minutes later. Robinson hit a spectacular volley from 25 yards which dipped under the cross bar at the last second to beat the outstretched arm of Cooper.

The third goal then arrived in the fourth minute of injury time. Hassocks chucked everyone forward for a Turner throw which ended up cleared by Mo Khedidji from an area around the penalty spot.

Khedidji showed great intent to chase after his own clearance. He outpaced Harvey Blake who was the deepest Hassocks outfield player, still some 30 yards inside the Lancing half.

Khedidji was now left with 70 yards of open space between himself and Cooper. The Lancing winger duly sped up the other end and calmly slotted underneath Cooper to complete a miserable afternoon for the Robins. 

Hassocks: Ed Cooper; Harvey Blake, Dan Turner, Liam Hendy; Devon Fender, Omar Abdsami, Luke Brodie, Lewis Finney, Joe Bull; Jamie Wilkes, Jack Troak.

Subs: Liam Benson, Alex Fair, Lewis Croal (used), Charlie Bonwick-Adams, Charlie Martin (unused).