There is no stopping Johnson

by Scott Mccarthy

There is no stopping Phil Johnson at the moment. Two goals at Withdean Stadium made it ten from his past ten appearances, 23 for the season and 99 in a Hassocks shirt as the Robins ran out 3-0 winners over AFC Varndeanians.

At the other end, James Westlake’s side recorded a fifth clean sheet in a row.

James Shaw and his defence have condemned the keeper of the statistics to an evening pouring through the annals to see if that is a club record; the likely answer being yes.

Shaw remained relatively untroubled against a Varndeanians side with not an awful lot to play for over the remaining eight games of the season.

The Vs are already destined to finish in lower mid table, currently 16 points clear of the two relegation spots and the same number behind Little Common in 11th.

Nobody connected with Varndeanians will mind that, especially after the dramas of last season when they failed to win any of their opening 25 matches and yet managed to avoid the drop following a stunning turnaround post-christmas.

Hassocks were one of the sides who fell victims to the Vs during that greatest of great escapes, losing 1-0 at Withdean in February.

The Robins showed very early on there was going to be no repeat this time around, taking the lead with the first attack of the game on two minutes.

Josh Bradley took a snapshot which home goalkeeper Jordan Hawkins could only parry.

The ball fell kindly to Leon Turner to strike home at the start of a man-of-the-match performance down the left.

Bradley on the other flank meanwhile was making first start since completing a four-match ban.

He replaced Alfie Loversidge in the only change Westlake made from last week’s 2-0 win over Loxwood.

The former Steyning Town man certainly made the most of the opportunity, being at the heart of a lot of the good stuff Hassocks did to threaten a Varndeanians defence including ex-robins favourite Luke Akehurst.