Burchnall says ‘chaos’ worked for Hornchurch
NOTTS County’s new head coach Ian Burchnall felt turning the game into “chaos” was Hornchurch’s best weapon as they knocked the Magpies out of the FA Trophy.
The Magpies missed out on a second trip to Wembley in under a year as they crashed out of the competition on penalties in Burchnall’s first game in charge.
Jake Reeves missed the only spot-kick in the shoot-out which came at the end of a dramatic 90 minutes. Notts took the lead three times only to be pegged back on each occasion.
And Burchnall felt that Mark Stimson’s visitors, who are parttime, had taken advantage of Notts’ slow start to the second half at Meadow Lane.
“I thought we were very good in the first half and I thought we had total control really,” he said.
“I am trying to work out how we got pegged back twice.
“The first goal against us is a bit of a freak. It comes from nothing.
“It’s not a great shot but it ricochets off, and the second goal we just got caught.
“I don’t know what the stats are but I imagine we had the ball, maybe 70 per cent plus.
“But the key when you do that is to ensure that you don’t get caught when you lose it because you get into a habit of watching the game.
“And I think we did that a little bit, we just fell into that trap. We were vulnerable on the counterattack.
“It’s a couple of really sloppy goals to give away. In the second half we started really slowly, with too many passes to feet.
“But then I thought in the last 20 minutes, Eli (Sam) came on and made a good impact. We started to stretch them a little bit and really we should put the game to bed.
“Sometimes when you give a lower league team a small chance in these cup games, it becomes chaos.
“We wanted it to be calmer and controlled rather than chaotic.
But they turned it into chaos. It worked for them and they won the game.”
Burchnall also clarified what happened during the penalty shoot-out when Hornchurch took exception to goalkeeping coach Jake Kean shouting when they were about to take their first penalty.
Order was restored as Michael Doyle was among the peacemakers and Burchnall said: “Jake just shouted and made a noise which I didn’t like.
“I talked to him afterwards but they got upset about that.
“But believe me, their technical area was lively, make no mistake about that.
“There were bits in there but I don’t think it was anything big.”