Heggie takes blame for loss

Interim manager Ian Heggie has taken sole responsibility for Henley’s 4-1 loss at home to Havant on Saturday 12th November, some say it’s to protect his players but they are in the minority.

Ex-first team captain, Mike Woolfrey has said that Heggie had no choice but to take the blame after a catalogue of recent blunders. The latest example was on show this Saturday with Havant having splashed out in the Summer for an Olympic goalkeeper, Henley managed to sign the permanently injured Alex Land from local minnows, Marlow. M Woolfrey went further to blame the recent string of injuries to Chris Green, Rob Mortimer and Benji Hetherington on his training techniques and for the departure of Ross Hibberd (best player in MBBO history) on a free to the US, Heggie quoting, “no one is bigger than the club.” Heggie was obviously finding Hibberd’s arrogance on the pitch and off pitch behaviour difficult to manage.

Back to the game and Henley actually started brightly creating some good chances. Jeff Goseph had found some form in recent weeks and was rightly rested for later in the game, leaving Gupta, Foster and Harding to lead the attack to Havant. After some tricky work down the right from Hibberd and Taylor, Gupta attempted a pass across goal but found it intercepted by the Havant goalkeeper who then deliberately knocked the ball off the baseline “for the protection of Gupta.” Gupta smashed the ball into the goal in the resulting short corner while shouting “Tener algo de eso” at the livid Argentinian keeper.

Before interim Heggie was able to get his shirt and trousers back on following his celebration, Havant had equalised, a long ball opening Henley up and some good skill from the Havant forward resulting in a short corner which was excellently dispatched into the bottom corner.

The teams went into half time at 1-1 with both goalkeepers making some superb saves. The team hydrated and discussed tactics with Coach Joyce while the interim went through his usual half-time waffle.

With Hetherington injured and Harding causing himself a back muscle issue (reportedly caused by some extreme gas release during the pre-game huddle), the game was stretched and proving hard work on the Henley midfield. Henley had some great opportunities to take the lead but could not find their way past the very impressive Olympian in the Havant goal, Jeff Goseph appeared to be deliberately shooting away from the goal just to stop the keeper from saving any more of his shots.

Havant were applying pressure of their own and went ahead with another well executed short corner. Despite some good saves from the Henley Man of the Match, Henry Emmet, Henley were unable to keep Havant out and they slotted 2 more goals in before the final whistle.

Henley should take the positives from the game, having competed well with Havant, the difference being a world class goalkeeper and their ruthless short corner routines.

After the game, Heggie apologised to the team, admitting his mind was not in the right place after being dropped to the bench for the following day’s over 40s cup match. Hibberd, angry at this pathetic excuse had to be held back by his team mates to not attack the interim.

Henley face Oxford Hawks next week in the Battle of Oxfordshire, a win would bury Heggie’s inability for a few weeks but he’s certainly not ordering that Christmas Turkey just yet.