By Scott Mccarthy
Gone are the 2010s and here are the 2020s. When one decade passes over to another, it often seems like
a good time to reflect on what has been before and what we want to happen in the future.
Everywhere you looked over the past month or so we’ve been blitzed with ‘best of the decade’ lists and ‘what will the world look like in 2030?’. You probably thought you could finally escape all that by picking up the latest edition of Hassocks Life in January 2020, but Hassocks FC have other ideas. Sorry!
How will the 2010s be remembered at the Beacon? By-and-large, it was a decade of success. The Robins achieved their highest ever finish of fourth in the Southern Combination League Premier Division in the 2011-12 season.
The Under 18s lifted two Central Division titles, finished runners up on a further three occasions and won a League Cup. The production line from youth team to first team has shown no signs of abating either.
Of course, there have been low points. Only being spared relegation due to ground grading at the end of the 2017-18 campaign was a disappointment, but the Robins have managed to stay afloat in the top flight – no mean feat for a club who pay peanuts compared to some of the big spenders.
And what of the future? That’s a more difficult question. That lack of serious financial backing means that it is hard to see how Hassocks could compete for promotion to the Isthmian League in the near future at least. Success on the pitch therefore over the next ten years will look like extending their run as the top flight’s longest serving club past the 30-year mark.
Strengthening the junior section and getting even more local players into the first team is another realistic target. The long-talked-about south field development might one day find the funding and support to get off the ground, allowing the Beacon to provide improved facilities and more pitches for teams in the village.
That could turn the home of football in Hassocks into the home of football in the local area, making the football club something the community can be truly proud of. Not a bad aim for the decade ahead, is it?