Havant & Waterlooville

Discussion of all things related to the club and first team
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Tony
Posts: 1304
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:57 pm

Hard to say that H&W didn’t deserve their win given their dominance for large parts of the game but to lose in the manner we did after missing a penalty at 1-1 and then conceding late on from a corner will make it a tough evening for supporters. With Farrell missing, Donaldson dropped into left back, and we missed his more physical presence in midfield. The first 35 minutes were basically H&W versus Charlie Wassmer so completely were we overrun in midfield by a much stronger and quicker opposition. Their goal however had a distinct whiff of offside with our defence looking for a flag that never came. A bit soft but undoubtedly deserved on the balance of play. Slew then plucked a goal out of nothing around 35 minutes with a sharp finish low inside Worgan’s right hand post. 1-1 at half time. I wondered if we might have brought on Andersen at halftime time to add a bit more solidity in midfield. Our bench looked pretty lightweight apart from Anderson. Second half followed much of the same pattern as the first but H&W wasted a fair few opportunities with long range shots. We threatened occasionally with Gondoh more influential but didn’t look like scoring until Fisher intercepted a poor pass in midfield and rushed through on goal to be clipped by Worner for a penalty. Already it felt like a big moment in the season but Slew blasted his shot over the bar having sent Worner the wrong way. We were left to rue the miss when sub Wall forced in the loose ball after Julian parried a header from a corner on roughly 90 minutes. We nearly forced an equaliser after a goalmouth scramble but couldn’t find the net. Worse news was Gondoh on crutches with what looked like a twisted knee. Could be missing for some time if it turns out as bad as it looked. H&W’s physicality and high press was too much for us at times. We persisted with playing from the back from goal kicks, perhaps because we didn’t feel we could win the longer ball. However, we flirted with disaster on more than one occasion and never looked confident that we could play round the press. It ended up going long all the same. A tough game for us against one of the certain league favourites. Had Slew scored the penalty I could have seen us taking all three points.
Lord Elpus
Posts: 643
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:09 pm

Just watched Gary's interview after the game, now posted via twitter. Great to have a manager who is so pragmatic, accurate and honest in his post match assessments.
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