FA Vase defeat hard to take for Hayes as Godmanchester dump Holbeach United out

Godmanchester Rovers 2
Holbeach United 0

Holbeach United’s fine run in the Buildbase FA Vase ended with a 2-0 third round defeat at Godmanchester Rovers on Saturday.

Late goals from Joe Furness (72) and Austen Diaper (83) sent the hosts through at Bearscroft Lane, with a depleted Tigers outfit powerless to resist.

With boss Seb Hayes missing the game for work reasons and four key first team players also unavailable, it was something of a day to forget all-round.

“I had to follow the game on Twitter,” admitted Hayes. “And it didn’t make good reading if I’m honest.

“Obviously, I played things down a little bit before the game as it’s not a competition we could expect to win.

“But I didn’t want to go out of the Vase – and especially against Godmanchester.

“I know a lot of their players and have taken a bit of stick since the result. It’s hard to take criticism of my team, but we’ve not been in great form in recent weeks.

“Like I said beforehand, if the game had come a few weeks sooner I’d have been very confident we’d have got a result.

“You could have looked at our form and thought things were great, having lost once in the last 15 games prior to Saturday.

“But things have been going downhill since the Harborough game and performances have been below-par.

“The only real positive for me is that they clearly dominated the game, but only scored late on.

“That tells me that the group dug in and stuck together despite not performing at their best.

“We had an injured Danny Barker, 16-year-old Reif Clarke and 42-year-old Wayne Oldaker on the bench – so in reality, we weren’t able to change the game all that much. Their subs changed the game, though.

“We had Jamie Stevens, Adam Jackson, Jack Smith and James Tricks out too, so it was just a tough game for us. Add the fact that I had to miss the game for the first time in two years here and it wasn’t ideal in any way.”

Tigers: Drury, Harker, T Smith, Clay (Oldaker 86), Braithwaite, Avis (Barker 75), Whyatt, Tinkler, Bird, B Smith (Clarke 80), Ford.