Fareham 4 Havant 3 : Coaches speak out

Fareham coach Ben Barnes, left, admitted it was the most ‘action packed’ Havant derby he had been involved with since the joined the club.
The behaviour of everyone on the Henry Cort pitch was exemplary.
“Both groups of players deserve a great deal of credit as they got on with the game,” he said.
“We talked before-hand about winning the battles but don’t pick a fight, work for the team and not making it personal and I was very pleased with how we and to be fair both teams did that.
“Sometimes the derby occasion can affect the quality but that was not the case.
“We deserved our lead, but Havant showed why they have not lost this season as they kept coming back.
“At 3-3 I felt it could have gone either way but Jamie (Rawlings) stepped up and converted near the end to take all the points.
“We held our nerve during Havant’s purple patch and responded each time they scored with a goal which is pleasing to see, but we need to keep playing positive hockey when we get two goals up.
“We let Isca back in last week as well, so we need to improve there.”
Havant’s Ady Adams reflected: “As always this game with our local rivals was a hotly contested affair.  Giving a couple of players their debut we didn’t quite start as strongly as I would have liked and Fareham seized the moment in the early stages, taking advantage to go 1-0 up very early on.
“I thought both teams had spells of good hockey but games like this are often won and lost on big moments. 
“We made a couple of errors at key moments that ultimately cost us with Fareham clinical in their execution. 
“However, looking at the (Havant) positives, we are still a very new side showing patches of great hockey and that we can score goals which bodes well for the coming weeks.”     

---