Despite the league season finishing for Steps 3-6 on Saturday barring play-off action the National League have just under three more weeks to go and there are the end of season cup finals all over the place.
For those who regularly read Littlehampton Town are on the verge of a history making season, in part they’ve written some already but there is still more that can enter the books forever.
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The league title was secured at the weekend and with it promotion to the Isthmian League for the first time in their history, the FA Vase is still to come at Wembley, another final in the shape of the Peter Bentley Cup and on Tuesday evening the chance to make it a third final in the Sussex RUR Cup, the winners to face Saltdean Utd.
Not surprisingly there were a few changes to the team that got over the line at the weekend, joint boss Mitch Hand coming in for a rare appearance along with Jordan Layton, Lucas Pattenden and Tom Biggs sitting this one out.
As always the visitors were backed by a good travelling support which has certainly created some atmosphere around the county grounds this year and with those numbers creating some noise, the scene was set on a nice light Sussex evening.
George Gaskin had the evening’s first chance on 10 minutes, a lovely one two between the striker and winger Dion Jarvis saw the latter cross into the box but Gaskin couldn’t beat Alex Harris.
Two minutes later however Town were front, another penetrating run from Jarvis saw him pulled back in the penalty area, top scorer Joe Benn blasting home from the spot to give the visitors the lead. Gaskin was close to doubling the lead minutes later, Zac Harris’ cutback had the striker hitting the target but denied by the post.
Then came the contentious moment in the game just before the half hour mark, Scott Kirkwood with a poor challenge on the Hassocks skipper Jack Troak who rolled around like his ankle had been broken, the referee immediately brandishing a red card for the Golds midfielder when a yellow it was at best.
What followed the incident left a sour taste around the ground, Troak got up showing not a single ill-effect from the challenge knowing full well his reaction got the visiting player sent off, that should have been a yellow card itself for ungentlemanly conduct, no place for that in the game whichever team you support.
The visitors regrouped and again came close to extending their lead as Harris headed a bouncing ball against the crossbar three minutes later after indecision in the Hassocks box.
The home side thought they were level on 36 minutes but a superb save from James Binfield denied Joe Bull an equaliser, the closest they came in the first half and the Golds saw out the remaining nine minutes or so without much drama.
With 15 minutes to take a breather, Town set up the second half slightly differently with two banks of four and Benn the lone striker and within two minutes of the re-start they were two goals to the good.
Gaskin was the scorer this time from a right wing corner making it 200 goals total for Littlehampton so far this season and a tough road for Hassocks to take to try and get something back from the game.
There was a glorious effort for the home side just before the hour mark but the shot ended up high and wide from Binfield’s goal as the visitors defended well and used the counter to attack for more goals.
Neither side managed to trouble either keeper too much in the final half hour and Town took their place in yet another final in what could be one of, if not the best season in history at least for them if not in the County League completely.
Great performance from young Jordan Layton, agreed by myself, Gareth Spinks and Steve Watson that he ran the game after the more experienced Kirkwood was sent off, neither of those two believed he wasn’t a regular starter.
The only alarming bit bar the sending off was the travelling support behind the goal on the bank, whilst the flares are colourful there is a danger to them and to bring fireworks to a game is just downright stupid!
That could have ended in disaster and at one point almost did, I can assure anyone who reads this that the Isthmian League and County FA certainly won’t be so lenient next season, a fine for the club means money not being spent on improving the supporter experience, at the worst they can order games to be played behind closed doors then everyone misses out, so if you know someone who think’s it’s a bit clever, tell them otherwise, the club suffer, you suffer, end of.
Onwards and upwards though, two more finals to come, dates to be arranged as they keep moving around, the final pages of this quite remarkable story are yet to be written……
