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Horsham FC play Hassocks FC in the Sussex Community Shield at Culver Road |
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It’s time for the Sussex Community Shield 🛡 again as we return to Lancing for the fund raiser for Chestnut Tree House Children's Hospice. As always, it’s our first competitive match of the season. This year it’s holders and Sussex Cup Winners Horsham facing the SCFL Premier League winners Hassocks. The Hornets 🐝 will be hoping to retain the Shield and the Robins , who won everything then played for last season, are not accustomed to losing and won't be looking to roll over. The 2 divisions difference in the clubs won’t necessarily play out on the pitch. Chestnut House have brought their mascot along in the form of a squirrel 🐿 that must be at least 6’2” tall. We're a bit scared of it. The Hornets have a few new signings including Gianluca Botti who we last saw at Lewes. He is a great forward and it will be interesting to watch how he fits into the Hornets team. We don’t know much about the Robins but we do recognise their right back. It’s ex-Docker Rob Malilla making his Robins debut. He must be a glutton for punishment as he was on the losing team for this fixture last season when Horsham beat Steyning 5-0. Surely it won’t be that bad tonight. Let’s see how it goes. Mon the Yellow and Green.
Horsham are getting lots of possession from the start. Hassocks are well organised at the back, defending with 2 close lines of 4. No gaps to squeeze through. The first real chance comes on 40 from some good build up by the Hornets. The finish is wide though. At the other end, the Hassock No. 9 seems a bit stranded. The half finishes with no more excitement.
It’s two changes to the Robins at the break. The Hornets are soon dominating again and the Robins get their first yellow card. They have their backs to the wall but are still defending well. The Hornets are getting closer. It’s another yellow then a red for one of the Robins defenders. It was tough with 11. Going to be very difficult now with 10. Greg Luer is on the end of a flowing move and finds the back of the net ⚽ on 74 after just 10 minutes on the pitch. Deadlock broken. Or is that flood gates. Going to be an interesting last 15. A few more yellows added to the Robins increasing tally. The second goal has to wait until 86 when Gianluca fires home from just outside the box ⚽. In to injury time and the Robins finally get a shot on target but it’s saved. 2-0 to the Yellow and Green. Does that make it a treble for them?
It was the quality of Horsham that came through in the end. Hassocks are a very good side and will be very difficult to beat this season with that defence. Their keeper is certainly working them with his constant ‘advice’. Two solid sides with a few good chances but the Hornets were starting to overwhelm the Robins as they tired. They also picked up a yellow or 6 (and a red) in their increasing desperation to maintain a hold on the game. One defender was lucky with just a yellow when it could easily have been a straight red for being the last defender. Ref might have made a different decision had it been a tighter game at that point. Credit to the Robin’s defender the big No.5. He nearly made POTM before Gianluca came on. The Hornets subs finally made the difference. The Robins didn’t get a decent chance and were only going to keep the Hornets at bay for so long. They did well but would have started to run out of players had it carried on much longer. A good game on a nice evening. Hope the Hornets and Robins are both successful in their new leagues.
POTM: Gianluca added excitement to a good solid game and scored a great goal. Always good to watch him tear a defence apart. The award almost went to Dan Taylor the big No. 5 for great organisation of the defence 🧱.
The Scran’O’meter does love it here. The veggie sausage 🌭 and chips 🍟 scores a 9/10 and the hot chocolate smashed it with a 10/10. Thanks Culver Road.
The ref had a good game, kept it flowing when he could, despite it getting niggly at times. Hassocks were good for their yellows and red although they did disagree somewhat. They decided to stop the Hornets by any means and seemed happy, well there was considerable vocal disagreement, so maybe resigned to the consequences.
Love Tranmerekat 🐾
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