After three wins in a row, the Magpies made the trip to Hassocks, who may have been on the end of six goals the week before, but had pulled out enough decent results in recent weeks to make the visitors justifiably wary of positive reaction. The starting line-up was the same for the third game in a row, in fact the only change to the squad was the introduction of Andy Barr, who provided the goalkeeping cover following his transfer from Billingshurst in the week.
The following report has been taken from the West Sussex County Times, courtesy of Ollie Berry...
Dave Cocoracchio has declared his Loxwood side are brimming with confidence after four straight victories and three consecutive clean sheets. The Magpies are flying again after a tricky patch in spells from the end of August through to early October, owing to injury problems.
On Saturday a routine 3-0 success away to Hassocks thanks to goals from Ollie Moore, Jordan Warren and Michael Wood saw the Plaistow Road outfit climb to eighth in the table. That was their fourth straight win, having scored 14 goals in the process and only conceding two. Manager Cocoracchio said: “We had one of the worst injury crises I have had to deal with just over a month ago and we went down to Eastbourne Town with 12 players and one of those had only played 15 minutes for us before that. “We scraped a 1-1 draw there and after that we have made a couple of very, very important signings, which have really given us strength in the spine through the team.
Returning injuries and the confidence building has resulted in us playing some super football.“ With the football we are playing, we are creating lots of opportunities and converting more. I think the most rewarding thing on this run though is three clean sheets – confidence is really high throughout the squad.”
Moore put the visitors ahead at The Beacon ten minutes before the break as the ball was laid back to him just outside the area by Tiago Andrade and he fired into the bottom left-hand corner. It was 2-0 seven minutes into the second half as Warren headed home at the far post after a decent move, which saw Joe Holvey involved as the ball came from back to front, before Harry Bachelor delivered to the far post. Wood rounded off the scoring on the hour, with a carbon-copy of Moore’s opener, but this time finishing into the far-right corner. Cocoracchio added: “We dominated the game from start to finish. We missed a lot more chances and it could have been more convincing, but the goals we did score were three of real quality.”
Loxwood host local rivals Horsham YMCA on Saturday in a game that promises to be an entertaining clash. Cocoracchio added: “They are probably the most in-form team looking at their results. If you can put a run together like both YM and we have, you are back in the mix and at the right end of the table.”