All square in Boxing Day Derby

HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 0-0 EASTLEIGH
MONDAY 26th DECEMBER 2011

Blue Square Bet South

Match Report by Ray Murphy

Figures can be calculated to make a guide on how you wish best to perceive them. To be honest from this game just remember that Eastleigh FC have now only lost one of their last eight league games. This was the dire local derby, the textbook goalless stalemate that a more seasonable temperature might have seen more drift away from the 938 attendance long before the game had finished.

Ian Baird returning to his old hunting ground made one change to the side that had defeated Boreham Wood in their previous league fixture with Danny Smith joining the starting line up in place of Jordace Holder-Spooner. Havant & Waterlooville were without former Eastleigh centre back Chris Holland missing through suspension.

Chances were very few throughout the game, which looked as though it might have been feisty but referee Adrian Quelch quickly quelled any tempers with a fourth minute caution for Jamie Brown for a late challenge on Steve Ramsey. The game always threatened to step up a gear but neither Jack Dovey or his opposite number Lyall Beasley were called into serious action throughout the ninety minutes. There was no quality from either side in the final third of the pitch as two determined defences and hard working midfields dominated the game.

After Eastleigh had opened the game brightly on ten minutes, Craig Braham-Barrett (who made one appearance for Eastleigh back in 2007/8) squandered an opportunity when he dragged a shot across the face of the goal and the post. A minute later Sammy Igoe’s delicate little lob over the Eastleigh rearguard saw the hard working Scott Jones volley over the bar from ten yards with only Dovey to beat.

Brown saw a header from a Damian Scannell corner blocked on the line by Jake Newton on sixteen minutes then five minutes later another Brown header was just over the bar from a Graeme Montgomery cross. At the opposite end a driven free kick from Igoe on twenty-four minutes saw both Jones and Sam Pearce just fail to make a connection that would have certainly had rippled the back of the net.

The last two chances fell in the final minutes of the opening half both falling to Havant & Waterlooville. First Braham-Barrett from the right flank sent a low left foot drive just wide of the target then a long kick from Beazley was presented to Igoe following a mistake by Tom Jordan, leaving Igoe with a clear run on goal, but Igoe's initial touch took him wide of the target and could not recover.

There were even fewer chances in the second period. After a spell of defending, Eastleigh broke away on fifty-seven minutes the ball arriving at Montgomery on the edge of the area with the Havant defence all out of position, but his neat lofted shot dipped just over the bar. Montgomery had an even batter chance ten minutes later but seemingly having picked his spot his deliberately aimed attempt was just the wrong side of the upright denying the midfielder to celebrate his midweek signing of an Eastleigh contract with a goal.

A long throw into the Eastleigh area on seventy-eight minutes was not cleared but Igoe only managed to fire over. Scott Rogers sent another dipping long-range effort just over the bar on eighty-three minutes. The game saw some controversy on eighty-six minutes when Havant & Waterlooville substitute Lee Peacock slipped the ball one side of Jordan, the players then colliding on the edge of the box that saw referee Quelch administer Jordan his second yellow card of the game thus leaving Eastleigh to finish the game which saw an additional five added minutes with ten men. Eastleigh actually substituted Ross Bottomley for substitute Jordace Holder-Spooner to recover the defensive quorum, but Holder-Spooner himself having only just substituted Eastleigh’s other substitute Chris Flood.

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