Match Preview: Havant & Waterlooville (H) – Tuesday 27th September 2022 – 19:45
The gaffer spoke to us ahead of tonight’s clash with high-fliers Havant & Waterlooville.
On preparations: “The lads trained yesterday, we recovered from Saturday and we wanted to work on our shape, our ability on the ball in terms of forward play, but also to make sure that we are all believing in one another for tonight’s game and beyond. We have to accept that we are where we are in the league, it must change and we need to get ourselves out of this hole that we’re in. There are no excuses, we have to turn this around and let’s see where we end up.”
On Havant: “Tonight will be a huge challenge, our scout went to go watch them play and spoke very highly of them. They have good full backs and a very impressive front line. We need to be able to stand up, compete and battle with them as a team. They’re a well drilled and organised side and we need to be able to match it.”
On team news: “Unfortunately Xander has not made it for this evening due to the injury he sustained at the weekend. He’s a huge loss tonight, a vocal player and a leader on and off the pitch. Obviously, it’s not great news to lose him at this stage, but we have to believe in each other and perform for one another. Tom Bearwish will captain the side tonight, I’ve been very impressed with him, he’s been excellent and am confident he’ll be able to lead the boys into this tough test tonight.”
On how the club can achieve results: “We all need to stay patient, need to work hard to be competitive and achieve good results. That comes from everyone, whether that’s players, staff or even the fans. We all need to be together and to be as one to make everything work and to push us in the right direction.”
@TerraStatman’s Facts of the Match
Havant we met before?
Our near-ish neighbours from over the border in Hampshire have been regular opponents in the league, two FA Trophy ties, a two-legged Southern league cup tussle and a friendly thrown in for good measure. Overall our record against this team formed from the merger of Havant Town and Waterlooville in 1998 stands at P26 W8 D5 L13. Therefore not quite a bogey team for us but certainly a team we have not always enjoyed facing. Our most recent encounter was a September friendly in September 2020 just before the delayed start to our return to the National League, resulting in a 3-1 home win. In the previous season we met twice in the National League South during our playoff winning campaign, but on both occasions the Hawks took all three points, a 0-1 loss on New Years Day before a titanic February tussle at Westleigh Park when we were on the wrong end of a five-goal-thriller, Hobson and McQuoid with our consolation goals. Our other meetings in the last dozen seasons were both FA Trophy ties. In 2014 we drew 1-1 at home against the then higher-placed Hawks but succumbed in the replay to a 5-0 tanking. Before that in 2011 we had a bit more luck as following a 0-0 draw at home we progressed in Hampshire courtesy of a 2-0 victory.
Water-logged!
Before the formation of the new club we faced Havant 18 times in the 1990’s and Waterlooville 27 times from the 1970’s until the 1990’s and enjoyed far more success against the latter. Our last ever home game against Waterlooville was the infamous game on New Years Day 1998 in the Southern League South division. Battling for promotion, we hosted the visitors in gale-force winds and driving rain on a waterlogged pitch, the away side scoring the only goal of the game direct from a corner as the wind blew the ball into the net! However that proved to be our last league loss of the season as we stormed to the title on the back of an 18-game unbeaten run, winning our last 15 fixtures!
The stellar list of selected players who have turned out for both teams today is…
Abdulai Baggie, Gary Borthwick, Nathan Bunce, Tyler Cordner, Chukki Eribenne, Ross Fitzsimmons, Jefferson Louis, Jake McCarthy, Jordan Ngalo, Yemi Odubade, Andreas Robinson, Jordan Rose, Tony Taggart, Steve Tate, Matt Tubbs, Shaun Wilkinson.
One current Hawk of course was once a key player for the Terras in the form of Jake McCarthy. The Blandford lad played 182 for Weymouth over four seasons from 2017 before making the trip east. Jake scored 29 times in midfield including two penalties and three free kicks, weighing in with 23 assists. Astonishingly Jake was the last player to score free kick for the Terras back in February 2020 – 111 competitive games ago!
