Rocks 1 Havant & Waterlooville 5

Bognor were blitzed by a second-half goal fest on a day more fit for penguins than football at a bitterly cold Nyewood Lane.

The bumper crowd at the Lane were buoyed when the Rocks took an early lead yet they left a couple of hours later wishing they had stayed in and watched the repeats of Jaws and the Wizard of Oz on the television after Havant proved too strong in the Blue Square South derby on Boxing Day.

It was a real game of two halves, as Bognor looked more than a match for their big spending neighbours and it was only a debateable penalty that separated the two teams at half-time.

The second half, however was a completely different story.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Rocks started the brighter of the two teams and were rewarded after just three minutes when Louie Castles pressured Havant keeper Scriven who made a right turkey of himself and failed to gobble up a simple ball and sliced it, leaving Castles an open goal at his mercy.

Castles kept his cool and slotted home from the tightest of angles being greeted by the sort of roar from the Nyewood Lane faithful that hadn't been heard in a long time.

The shock of going behind didn't seem to spur Havant into action and Nathan Lynch was unlucky not to double the lead for those in green and white when his shot was blocked Scriven in the Hawks goal whose confidence was affected by his earlier blunder.

Havant were given a belated Christmas present on 18 minutes when a Jay Conroy throw was not cleared in the box and appeared to strike Havant defender Ian Simpemba's hand, and was collected by Chris Tardif.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Referee Mr Bull decided to give Havant a penalty, to the bemusement of all in the ground, including the large Havant contingent only yards away who felt it must still have been Christmas Day.

Jamie Collins stepped up to level the score, leaving Bognor with a very bitter taste in their mouths.

The setback of losing their lead didn't seem to affect Bognor and they were very unlucky not to regain it five minutes later when James Fraser and Castles linked well on the right hand side with Castles deceiving the Hawks challenges and squaring to Fraser who only had to tap the cross into an empty net.

Amazingly Conroy managed to clear the danger with an impressive stretch, which looked almost impossible to achieve.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Havant led for the first time in the game after 34 minutes when defender Ruben French was guilty of indecision and Craig Watkins dispossessed the Rocks left-back and squared for Charlie Henry to place the ball into the net passed a helpless Tardif.

The second half started with Havant the much stronger side and they were unlucky not to extend their lead minutes into the half with Conroy rattling the crossbar with a perfectly executed free-kick with the rebound being blocked by Sam Pearce.

Bognor were unlucky not to get back into the game on 60 minutes when a Gary Funnell shot was deflected into the path of French, off of Simpemba, and Scriven in the Havant goal superbly saved his volley.

This was to be Funnell's last action for the Rocks as he was replaced by McEnery to inject some pace into the Rocks side on the left wing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bognor continued to battle but were unable to break the Havant defence and came closest to scoring when man of the match Castles crossed for Steffan Gaisie with the ball coming off the head of Simpemba who nearly headed into his own goal.

Havant's continued pressure paid off on 70 minutes when Robbie Matthews headed home to deservedly get himself on the scoresheet after an excellent game for Havant.

This lead was further extended just minutes later when Henry's free kick was superbly saved by Tardif, but from the resultant corner Simpemba headed home to compound a miserable second half for Bognor.

The game petered out into a defensive battle for Bognor with Havant relentlessly attacking Tardif between the sticks and it was no surprise when Havant finished off the rout with Rocks legend Luke Nightingale coming back to haunt Bognor with a well-taken headed goal after Henry had hooked the ball into his path.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bognor go into the reverse fixture on New Year's Day at West Leigh Park hoping to restore some pride after this defeat and hope not to continue the trend of not being able to convert or take chances when presented to them.

Rocks: Tardif, Hinshelwood, Funnell, Pearce, French, Byrne, Castles, Smith, Lynch, Fraser, Pettefer '“ Subs: Gaisie for Lynch (45), McEnery for Funnell (66), Broadbent not used.

Havant: Scriven, Conroy, Poate, Collins, Elphick, Simpemba, Henry, Holloway, Watkins, Matthews, Walker. Subs: Booth and Nightingale for Matthews and Watkins (76 mins)

Report by Ian Guppy

What the fans are sayingOops. At the end of the day whether we lost 1-0 or 5-1 we still lost. For part of the game we were in it. We scored first from Louie Castles' oblique cross. That was as good as it got though. An over-fussy ref gave Hawks a penalty from nothing and they never looked back. Rocks were a bit too one

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

dimensional, everything was coming down the right to Castles. He was playing up front and left a gap behind for the Havant No7 Henry to exploit. So we went in at half time 2-1 down.

At 2-1 we were still in it, but 2 lapses in concentration at set plays cost us 2 more goals. Luke Nightingales 5th was the icing on the cake for them. In truth in the second half we rarely threatened, we played too deep, were too slow in midfield and it was all one way traffic to Castles on the right. All too predictable. Perhaps it was too much Xmas pud.

The solution, we needed more balance to the team and in hindsight Mick may have started with McEnery on the left wing to give another avenue. Whatever side we pick we must have stability and a settled side. We have always got New Year's Day to beat Havant 5-1, the players need no more motivation than that to correct this bad day at the office.

- Jennyfromtherox

The match started off brightly when Castles found the ball on the right side after the Havant keeper made a bad mistake outside his area and he was put through on goal and scored. But once Havant had gained the controversial penalty you could see the confidence was knocked for 6 and our players felt the need to defend and so many mistakes both defensively and in attack materialised. Some of the players look as though they wanted to be scoring goals and want to fight back, but I'm afraid others didn't show this, especially in the second half where I think as the goals came, they didn't seem to care anymore. Having said that, we did miss the likes of Jupp and Clarke who were both out with illness and I really hope they are going to be back for the return match at West Leigh Park on New Year's Day, as we are going to have to take the game to them this time.

- Liam Goodley

Click here to give us your views on the result and performance