Eastleigh 0-1 Havant & Waterlooville

Report by Jamie Montigue

28th August 2006
Conference South

In front of a record home league crowd of 928, Eastleigh were unable to end their losing streak as Rocky Baptiste’s 43rd minute goal proved to be the match winner.

The Spitfires lined up without Steve Forbes, who is set to undergo major surgery to his face after the horrendous challenge at Fisher Athletic. It is thought that Forbes will be out for at least three months and of course we wish him a very speedy recovery. Eastleigh were also without defenders Jason Dodd, Francis Benali and Rob Marshall. Andy Forbes’ ankle injury came back to haunt him at the weekend, thus leaving just Dave Town and Jefferson Louis as the only fit strikers (Justin Bennett and Stuart Douglas are still recovering). Paul Doswell adopted a 4-5-1 formation with Louis as the lone striker and a packed midfield.

Havant had a couple of early attempts, firstly Richard Pacquette connected with a long kick by goalkeeper Shane Gore but his effort flew wide. In the next minute of the game, Mo Harkin had an even clearer chance, however he couldn’t beat Paul Musselwhite at his near post.

Conference South top goalscorer from the 2005/2006 season, Rocky Baptiste was very lively and almost opened the scoring inside 10 minutes. Baptiste worked his way down the right hand side and got a shot in from the tightest of angles forcing an excellent save out of Paul Musselwhite as Havant continued to threaten.

After a quarter of an hours play, Eastleigh began to show a bit more purpose going forward. Darren Wheeler was unlucky not to create an opening as he turned Mo Harkin inside out leaving the Havant player for dead on the half way line, but as he skipped past another challenge he unluckily overran his dribble, bringing the move to an end.

Another moment of positive play from the home side involved the in-form veteran David Hughes, as he expertly sprayed the ball down the right flank for Jefferson Louis who did well to win a corner. From it, the same two players linked up once more as Hughes picked out Louis from the corner. The former Oxford striker volleyed the ball goalwards but was denied what would have been a good goal by the chest of a Havant defender on the goal line.

All of a sudden, Eastleigh were looking the better side and more than a match for their opponents. Chris Collins had a good chance to score from David Hughes’ free kick to the near post, but the centre back’s effort was comfortably saved by Gore low down to his right as Eastleigh seemed to up the pressure.

Just before the half hour mark, both teams could have scored in quick succession. Brett Poate of Havant played the ball in to Rocky Baptiste from the left who found himself six yards from goal. Collins stepped in to brilliantly intercept and Martin Thomas then took the ball away from danger as he moved it down the line to Hughes. In the counter attack from Eastleigh, had Wheeler kept running he may just have got on the end of the cross field pass from Hughes, although Shane Gore, to his credit, came out of his goal sharply to smother the ball.

Eastleigh’s best move of the match saw a save right out of the top drawer; deny former Havant player Dave Town a fantastic goal. Darren Wheeler skilfully held on to the ball before teeing it up for Hughes to cross from the left. Louis dummied it at the back post for Town who cut inside before curling a lovely effort that looked destined for the back of the net. Gore however, had to be equal to it and was, as he somehow managed to fingertip the ball around the post diving at full stretch.

For all of the Spitfires hard work, Havant made them pay for not taking at least one of their chances. Before the goal, Brett Poate had a go from distance but failed to trouble Musselwhite, and then, moments later, Richard Pacquette’s low strike from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection off Adam James before thumping against the post with the Eastleigh keeper left standing.

A slight lapse in concentration towards the end of the half by Eastleigh, saw Baptiste open the scoring, which proved to be the only goal of the game. Only a minute before the goal, the Havant hit man set out a warning as he took on Matt Bound, who slipped, lashing his shot inches wide of the bottom corner.

Then, in the 43rd minute a mistimed challenge from Ian Oliver was not penalised by the referee as play continued, and the ball found its way to ROCKY BAPTISTE who rounded Musselwhite with ease before netting past two Eastleigh defenders who had chased back, on the goal line.

On the stroke of half time, the Eastleigh captain Danny Smith’s looping header went just wide of goal as the first 45 was brought to an end.

HALF TIME – Eastleigh 0-1 Havant and Waterlooville

After a disappointing end to the first half, in particular conceding a soft goal, it was Eastleigh that came out of the blocks quickly. A promising run by Jefferson Louis could have led to a much better end product had he released the ball earlier, but the tall centre forward lost control after taking the ball past a host of Havant players.

Four minutes later, a superb run by Oliver from left back saw Havant on the back foot. The young defender flicked the ball out wide to Wheeler with the outside of his boot, and as the cross came in, their appeared to be a tug on Martin Thomas, who went down in the area, although the referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge.

Havant substitute Craig Watkins put in a deadly cross from the left hand side of the Eastleigh goal area on 52 minutes. All it needed was a touch at the back post, but both Ian Oliver missed his header to clear for a corner and a Havant player failed to connect sliding in. This could very easily have been 0-2.

Musselwhite produced an excellent stop to deny Mo Harkin on 60 minutes and then made an even better save from a Jamie Collins thunderbolt to tip the ball wide for a corner.

Paul Doswell sent on Brian Dutton and Ryan Ashford to replace the largely ineffective Jefferson Louis and the tireless Martin Thomas.

After making some good interceptions soon after coming on, Dutton’s day very nearly became pearshaped as he nodded the ball past his own keeper from a Havant free kick. Thankfully the goal was ruled out for a foul in the area in favour of Eastleigh.

Eastleigh rarely threatened in the second half; the closest attempt saw Danny Smith miss hit a volley, which could have fallen for Town but Gore rushed out to evade the danger.

As the game came to a close, Smith was booked for a full-blooded tackle sparking a brief brawl. Eastleigh’s last throw of the dice came in the shape of Ben Ngwa who was chucked up front with Oliver making way as the Spitfires did all they could to try and rescue a point.

In the end it wasn’t to be as Havant held on for the victory and Eastleigh’s dire form continued – this their fourth straight defeat.

FULL TIME – Eastleigh 0-1 Havant and Waterlooville