Henley well beaten by Havant

On the face of a 9-2 score line, you would think this game was a very one sided affair, but in truth was a tale of two halves, and not 11 vs 11, but 12 vs 16. A sparse looking Henley side travelled to league contenders Havant, without the services of the Gupta spin, Walter wobble, Ralph caps, and, well, Heaver, and interim manager Ian Heggie chose to only bring in tall Sam, so as to not deplete the league topping 2nd XI.

Henley started brightly in front the vociferous Havant OAP’s club, and netted first. Sadly at the wrong end though, with Ed Hughes-Burne turning a dangerous looking Havant ball into his own net past a soon-to-be very busy Roy Cox in goal. Unshaken though, Henley continued to trade attacks and counter attacks and were soon creating chances of their own, at the right end of the field, through neat interplay of captain Ed Foster and midfielders Hetherington and Joyce, and good lead running of the forward line. Henley quickly levelled the score line up through whammy specialist and man of the match Chris Green, pulling another old skool reverse out of the bag past a helpless Havant keeper. Despite some solid, though some times last ditch defending from Rowe, Mortimer and Hughes-Burne, Havant quick restored their lead with a somewhat fortunate goal being deflected a chest height past Cox, only for Green to add a second to his tally in similar fashion levelling things up again.

The remainder of the half was evenly balanced with both sides creating chances, and Green could have doubled his tally but somehow suddenly forgot how to score. Havant added a third just before the halftime break but with 35 to go, it appeared there was still much to play for with Henley well in it at 3-2.

Coach Joyce’s observations at halftime identified Havant’s lack of game changing talent, pointing out they were just a well-coached side and not much more. Unfortunately for Henley, Joyce’s observation was spot on, but a perfectly executed second half game plan to stretch the game using thier full, well coached squad of 16, against Henley’s 12 saw the game slip away, ironically with most goals coming from corners, despite Havant no longer having the services of Indian International Sandeep Singh at their disposal. Four extra subs really does make a difference at this level, final score a sorry looking 9-2, but still an encouraging first half performance and points on the table vs Wayfarers next week.