MATCH REPORTS - FIRST TEAM

Sussex County League Division 1
Tuesday 06th November 2007
ROBINS COLLAPSE - TWO MORE POINTS DROPPED
Hassocks 3-3 Eastbourne United Association

FOR THE second time in seven days Hassocks threw away two points by conceding a late equaliser at home. If the 1-1 draw with Hailsham last week was regrettable, Tuesday’s stalemate with United was downright criminal as the hosts led 2-0 and 3-1. It was inexplicable how panic seemed to set in when Rafal Ciupinski was allowed to run from halfway and beat Joel Harding to his right from 22 yards to peg the score back to 3-2 on 76 minutes. Suddenly Hassocks kept giving the ball away with monotonous regularity and after conceding an 88th minute equaliser to sub Chris Osunami could have gone on to finish emptyhanded. But for much of the game they appeared to be cruising to another win after Mark Sheriff continued to rediscover his goalscoring touch. The experienced little striker had not scored a senior goal this season until Saturday when he hit both in a League Cup win at Selsey. And in this match he added another double to his tally.

Injury to left wing back Richard Thompson meant Spencer Slaughter made a quickfire return after his brush with the law on Friday night and Anthony Hibbert also returned to midfield. Hibbert played a part in both Sheriff goals, the first on 18 minutes when his diagonal pass sent Sam Fisk away to deliver a great cross from which Sheriff did well to arch his back and put away a fine header. After that the Robins should have cashed in as Sheriff sent a free header aginst the bar from Slaughter’s first-time cross, then fired over when played in by Phil Gault and finally missed an absolute sitter after charging down at attempted clearance. The goal was at his mercy but Sheriff seemed to be caught in two minds and in the end Reece Head got back to clear off the line.

The next guilty man was Gault a minute after half time when he missed a free header from six yards following Slaughter’s cross. But those misses were forgotten five minutes later when Gault controlled Hibbert’s corner at the far post and dinked over a clever cross that Sheriff headed in from six yards. It was one-way traffic at that stage but on 58 minutes the visitors were thrown a lifeline when Mark Warren flicked on Tom Morton’s corner and Lucas Mann scored at the far post. The reprieve seemed shortlived, however, as three minutes after that Sheriff found Gault and he turned his man and then managed to dig out the ball from under his feet for a good finish.

Sam Crabb’s fizzer across goal offered the visitors hope that turned into reality with those goals from Ciupinski and Osunami that again left Hassocks shaking their heads in disbelief.

Hassocks: Harding, Turner, Marsh, Faith, Lear, Fisk; Robbins, Slaughter, Hibbert; Gault, Sheriff

Unused subs: Robinson, Simpson, Brown & Wickwar

Middy Starman: Mark Sheriff, another double