Historic night for Port against Villa
Club through to third round for the first time after big win
Saturday proved to be a historic day for Holyport FC, as the club progressed to the third round of the FA Vase for the very first time, recording it's biggest ever win in the competition in the process.
Port took a full coach of players and supporters down to Brighton for their Saturday evening game with Montpelier Villa of the Southern Combination Division One and there proved to be a gulf in class, with the visitors running out convincing 7-0 winners.
Port were already cruising 3-0 on the artificial surface before Villa were reduced to 10 men just prior to the break. This truly allowed Port to take the handbrake off and they ran out 7-0 winners with Fabien Etienne (two), Harry Hoath, Sam Jones. Alexander Dimitrijevic, Christian Johnson and Harry Williams on the scoresheet.
They scored seven but, on another day, might have had 10 or 12 as they tore into their hosts to set up a third-round tie against step 5 side, Peacehaven & Telscombe of the Southern Combination Premier Division. It’s been an incredible season for Port in the cups, with the club going further than ever before in both the FA Cup and FA Vase, however, their league form has faltered a little in the meantime and Lock is hopeful this resounding win will give his players the belief they need to transform their league form.
Lock said: “We were very good and it's an experience these players will learn from. We’re developing our way of playing and we can now dominate games and orchestrate what we want to do.
“We did a lot of homework on the opposition. I managed to get a lot of footage, so I knew how they would set up. But for the boys, it was more about us. It was a good 4G pitch and we just made it as
big as possible, and we punished them time and time again. It was a faultless performance.
“They’ve knocked out two step 5 sides, so we didn’t take them lightly and I do just think it was a faultless performance. We’ve been threatening to give someone a hiding and it just happened to be them. We also had a lot of players unavailable which shows you the depth of our squad.
“It's brilliant, but we just need to get some points on the board now. We've got fixtures against teams in and around us and ultimately, we need points on the board now. There's no excuses.
Port are likely to host Peacehaven at Summerleaze Park on Saturday, December 3, however, the exact date and timing of the fixture is yet to be confirmed, with Maidenhead – and potentially England – fixtures complicating matters.
Before that, second from bottom
Holyport – who were due to play Oxhey Jets on Tuesday before it was postponed – face fellow strugglers Wokingham & Emmbrook and Wallingford & Crowmarsh.
“It's a results business and, ultimately they haven’t been good enough,” Lock admitted. “I have no complaints about the performances at all. Five of the six games we’ve lost have been against teams in the top six, all away from home, but we should have turned some of our draws into wins.
“We can’t sit and feel sorry for ourselves though, it’s about winning our next game. It’s a cup final for us on Saturday and the same again the following Saturday. We’ve got to look forward to the next round of the Vase but that will take care of itself. We have a lot of hard work to do between now and then, and it’s about knuckling down and sticking some points on the board now.”