Southern Combination League Premier Division
Little Common Recreation Ground, Bexhill-on-Sea
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 146
This was very much a welcome bonus game for me, made possible by one of my local clubs having to switch their game to the Friday evening, as their clubhouse facilities are shared with a cricket club.
Little Common have had a slow start to their season, winless from their opening four league games, but drawing three of those, but they did progress in the FA Vase thanks to a 0-1 win at Steyning Town last Saturday, and back in early August, Little Common put in a very decent performance against Isthmian League outfit Chatham Town, being eventually succumbing to a late goal to lose 1-2. Hassocks have had a decent start to their season, winning three - including a 7-0 win at home to Roffey on Monday - and drawing the other two of their opening five league games. They did progress in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round, but were then knocked out by Southern League Uxbridge. After I missed out on a programme on my visit to see the FA Cup game against Chatham, there was no problem getting one this evening.
On a fairly muggy and partly sunny evening, Hassocks started well, forcing a decent save in the third minute, but it was Little Common who opened the scoring on 6 minutes when the ball was played down the left, and the player did well to work his way to the byline before passing the ball across goal for Lewis Hole to tap home from close range. Although the rest of the half was even, Hassocks had several very decent chances to get back on level terms. On 9 minutes, following a corner, the ball landed at the feet of Cash who, leaning back, stabbed the ball high over the bar from inside the six yard box when it really did seem easier to score. And on 23 minutes, a driven shot by James Westlake came back off the crossbar.
The second half followed a similar pattern - very even, but with Hassocks creating the more decent chances to score. On 49 minutes, Johnson went on a slalom run through midfield before unleashing a shot that went just over the bar, and on the hour mark, there was another pretty amazing miss by the visitors when the ball was crossed low along the six yard box, just evading a couple of heads but at the far post, Blake blazed the ball over the bar. And the visitors were made to pay for their misses when Little Common doubled their lead on 80 minutes when a corner was met with a bullet header by Lewis Parsons. Hassocks had one further great chance to get on the scoreline in the final minute when the ball was launched diagonally towards the back post, and a hooked goalbound shot was acrobatically cleared off the line, and a follow up shot went wide. It just wasn't Hassocks' night, probably one of those nights when they could have played until midnight and not scored. But for Little Common, they recorded their first win of the season.
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