An away trip to forget for Henley

Henley travelled to 3rd placed Old Cranleighans on Saturday where interim manager Ian Heggie had already taken the Vets team to a loss the week before.

Henley started brightly and were competing well on the slow OC’s pitch. Some good work down the left found Goseph high up the pitch but he forgot that the base line isn’t just for show and ran off the end of the pitch. The rest of the first half was an even affair with Cox making some good and some clumsy saves and Mortimer clearing one superbly off the line. Henley went in at half time 1-0 down after OC’s nicked the ball in midfield and played a fast and effective counter attack.

Coach Joyce had some stern words at half time on the team’s defensive setup. Jeff Goseph taking the brunt of it after continuing to chat back to the Coach and went over to take his spot on the bench for the second half insisting he just had “something in my eye.”

A 15 minute spell in the second half in which Henley completely lost their way, losing the ball too often, not tracking men and diving into tackles. Before they knew it OC’s had scored another 4 with some slick finishing and a couple of high quality short corners.

Henley started to play like they had in the first half again and started creating chances. The GOAT and Gupta both finished off some excellent moves that ended with Henley passing into the goal. However, OC’s were enjoying their lead and playing free flowing hockey with the game having opened up and got another 3 goals. Joyce made it 3-8 with a penalty flick after Taylor had deflected Foster’s short corner hard push into the body of the postman.

It was a game that Henley weren’t expected to win but the next three games, starting with Winchester at home, are vital if they want to avoid the reliance of National League play-offs deciding their fate.

Man of the Match was Luke Gupta for his tireless effort in midfield mixed with creativity in the final third.

D1ck of the Day went to Goseph - never back chat the Coach. Club Legend, Chris Green was quoted after the game “I don’t understand why Heggie lets him come along sometimes, I know we were short of players but his attitude at half time was unprofessional and sometimes I don’t think he knows what sport we’re playing.”

Goseph was asked to comment but there’s currently a lost person notice out on him after he went running on Sunday and forgot to keep track of where he was going.