‘You do start to question yourself’
Dos glad to end dismal few weeks with three points
Paul Doswell confessed Hawks’ win against Chelmsford ensured a happy end to an otherwise miserable week.
The manager freely admitted the previous few days had been a struggle for the management and players at Westleigh Park.
FA Cup embarrassment at Marine was followed by having to watch the Merseysiders paired with Tottenham in the third round.
A distinct feeling of ‘ what might have been’ stuck in Doswell’s throat for a while after that.
‘I know we made about £100,000 from the FA Cup run, but we’d have made around £200,000 from playing Tottenham.
‘It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we ****** it up.
‘The players felt like they’d let the club down, myself and Bairdy (assistant manager Ian Baird) felt as if we’d let the chairman ( Derek Pope) down.
‘You do take these responsibilities on your shoulders.
‘The cup draw compounded the misery, and it was misery.
‘It was like a morgue in training here on Tuesday.’
With that in mind, it was possibly no wonder Hawks started badly at home to Hemel the following day - going 3-1 down inside half-anhour.
‘Myself, Bairdy and (coach) Simon Walton were here until midnight after the Hemel game,’ Doswell revealed.
‘You do start to question yourselves, and you do start to question the personnel.
‘This was a massive win (against Chelmsford).
‘Hopefully they’ve got their mojo back now.
‘If we’d lost this one and then lost to Slough on Wednesday, then it would have become a personnel issue and a confidence issue.
‘Confidence is huge in football.
‘When you’re losing, you don’t ever think you’ll win, and when you’re winning you don’t ever think you’ll lose.’
Against Chelmsford, ‘all the players were a seven or an eight out of 10.
‘Against Marine everyone was a four or a five - that was the difference.
‘Sevens and eights will win you the majority of your games.’
Doswell said his man of the match was ex-Horndean right back Benny Read, but was also delighted with veteran Danny Kedwell’s display.
He had read criticism of the 37-year-old striker on social media and said: ‘The people who made those disparaging remarks don’t know about football.’
Doswell changed the system against Chelmsford, abandoning the 5-3-2 formation he had deployed against Hemel and reverting to his favoured 4-4-1-1.
Walton, Billy Clifford and Iaciofano dropped out, with Bedsente Gomis back after injury and Benny Read and
Roarie Deacon recalled.
While Kedwell had partnered Iaciofano in midweek, this time he linked well with Wright.
Wright and Iaciofano had partnered each other for the first seven games of 2020/21, sharing eight goals between them.
But Kedwell was brought back to Westleigh Park in early November to offer something different, and he enjoyed his best game since his return against Chelmsford.
Wright’s weekend hattrick took his seasonal tally to eight, five of which have come in the league.
Iaciofano remains on four - having not scored since a double strike against Chatham in the FA Cup in October.