Heathens stay top with win over Port
Weather conditions proved difficult for Holyport and Flackwell Heath at the weekend, but the Heathens managed to claim victory and maintain their spot at the top of the table.
Both sides created plenty of chances during the local derby at Wilks Park on Saturday, but it was Flackwell Heath’s Wiktor Makowski whose penalty found the back of the net in the 27th minute and eventually won the Heathens the game 1-0, securing them the maximum three points.
Flackwell Heath’s manager Chris Ayres said he knew Saturday’s clash would be a hard because Holyport have ‘massively improved’.
He said: “Their results have been a lot better this year.
“With it being a local derby, we knew it would be difficult and the conditions were not great for both teams.
“We had the wind first half. We got a penalty, and they caused us a few problems.
“The wind died down [in the] second half and then we missed a couple of chances to put the game to bed and when it’s 1-0 its always not the best of scorelines because they could have come back.
“But we held out, kept a clean sheet, so just pleased to get over the line.”
The win puts Flackwell Heath one point clear at the top of the Combined Counties Premier Division North table, after closest rivals Rayners Lane fell to second place after a four-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player.
Holyport’s manager Sam Lock, who wasn’t present at the game but had picked the team, kept upto-date and watched it back after. He said the windy conditions made for a ‘very scrappy, horrible’ game with lots of freekicks, but the team have not been disheartened by the loss.
He said: “We had some good opportunities to score early on which we didn’t take.
“I think it was a game of whoever scored first was going to win, to be honest.
“They are obviously top of the league for a reason and have been doing the right things consistently and they just found a way to get the result.
“It’s a hard game away from home against the league leaders so it doesn’t change our end result and endgame.”
He added: “I think the performance was good from what I've seen back and listening back to the other coaching staff.
“Speaking to the boys, they're not too downhearted about it. It was a tricky game.
“Obviously, you're disappointed when you lose games of football, but when you look at our form over the last, maybe 15 games, it's been brilliant.”
Holyport took on Broadfields United in a rescheduled game on Tuesday night and won 3-2, boosting them into fifth position –a play-off place if they maintain it until the end of the season.
With the end of the season not far away and five games left to play, Ayres said Flackwell Heath need to win four of the clashes to secure their top position and bring home the title.
His side face Bedfont Sports, currently in third, on Saturday, which he says will be a ‘tough game’, but he is hoping for a win.
“Whatever it takes we’ll do our best to win four of those five.
“Hopefully we can get a win [on] Saturday and then move on to the next.
“It’s going to be tough, but we won’t leave anything behind, we’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
If they were to win the title, Ayres added: “It would be amazing for the club. There's been so much work gone in this season on and off the pitch.
“Fingers crossed we can reward everyone with success, but we’ll see.”
Lock said it’s ‘fantastic’ that Holyport are in the conversation for the play-offs and said Saturday’s game against Wallingford is a big game and a ‘must win’.
He said: “The fact that little old Holyport are even in the conversation of the play-offs is fantastic.”
Lock added that his side doesn’t just aim to do great, but be the best they can be, and they can do that by getting the maximum three points in their upcoming matches.