Injury-hit Holyport suffer surprisingly heavy home defeat

Lynford Sackey scored a second half consolation for Holyport. Photo: Holyport FC

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Holyport 1, Bedfont Sports 4

Injury-hit Holyport suffered a surprisingly heavy home defeat to Bedfont Sports on Saturday, with Adam Hopkins side going down to their heaviest loss of the campaign so far.

Generally, Port have been pretty solid and hard to beat in most matches, whether in the league or cup, but that resilience was sadly missing from their play at Summerleaze Park on Saturday as Bedfont put four goals past the hosts.

Port were without nine first team players for the clash and it showed. The game was pretty much done and dusted as a contest before half-time as Jared Myers netted a first half hat-trick with goals in the 12th, 24th and 30th minutes.

Connagh Wilks heaped further pain on the home side with a fourth goal in the 67th minute before Lynford Sackey finally got the home side on the scoresheet in the 69th minute. Port also saw Fabien Etienne sent off for a second cautionable offence in the closing minutes, but it had little bearing on the outcome of the match.

Port remain in the play-off places, and are still very much in contention for promotion - either automatically or via the play-offs - however, a few more performances like this will certainly take the gloss off their positive start to the campaign.

Bedfont Sports rise to sixth, three points behind Port with a game in hand.

Hopkins will be hoping Saturday's performance is simply a blip and to give some context, Port would move level on points with leaders Egham Town were they to win the three matches they have in hand on them.

At Summerleaze on Saturday, Myers fired the visitors in front from the penalty spot and added two more before the half-hour mark. Beck was unlucky not to pull a goal back when his shot hit both posts in the 49th minute and Bedfont stretched their lead in the 67th minute. A goal from Sackey lifted the mood around Summerleaze but was never likely to ignite an incredible comeback.

Reflecting on Saturday's disappointing display for the club's media, Hopkins said: “To be fair, I thought they set up really well. Possession wise, they've played a 5-3-2 and tried to hit us on the break and stop our natural width, which I think in the first half they did really, really well. You've got to give credit to Bedfont. They've done their homework, and they've come here and got a result.

“But I'm disappointed with the first goal. Because he's cleared the ball, and as he's cleared the ball, he's kicked it onto his own hand. To me, that's not a penalty, that's soft and that kind of sets the tone for the game. They had two other opportunities in the half, and they took them both. That is something we haven't been doing as well of late so fair play to them for that. We went in 3-0 down at half-time but have come out for the second half and their fourth goal should never have stood, it's a blatant foul. But it counted. We changed the shape slightly but couldn't change the personnel today and it kind of worked. We came into the game more and we scored.

“I hope this is a wakeup call. All the substitutions had a positive impact on the game and all of the boys who came off the bench worked really hard.

“I thought the second half performance was much better, but by then the game had already gone. We lost that in the first half. We had possession, but we lacked in certain areas, but they're a good side. Bedfont are always up there, every year and they'll be up there again this year, as will we. The boys will learn from it and it's something they need to do.”

Port will look to respond when they visit struggling Wokingham Town this Wednesday evening (7.45pm kick-off) while they're on the road again on Saturday against bottom of the table Edgware & Kingsbury - two matches they'll be hoping to take maximum points from.

“Currently we have nine players unavailable, five long-term injuries. three players away, a couple of suspensions, but fair play to the boys in the second half, they worked hard and tried to get something”

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Tickets have also gone on sale for Holyport's home game with Bracknell Town in the third round of the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup on Tuesday, November 12 (7.45pm kick-off). 

Advanced tickets purchased prior to Sunday, November 10 will include a free hot drink. 

Click here to buy tickets for the tie.