Five-goal Havant thwart Clifton comeback

Havant recorded their first win in England Men’s League West Conference with a  good first half and an indifferent second against winless Clifton Robinsons, who never recovered from conceding three goals in five minutes.
Havant had to wait until the 10th minute to take the lead after Raj Laly had drilled the ball into the circle to find Maciej Janiszewski,   who deflected the ball past Andy Hughes in the visitors goal.
A minute later Havant doubled their lead after Maciej and Sam Hatherley had combined well in midfield to allow Sam to enter the visitors circle where he won a penalty corner. Tosseq Arshad stepped up and flicked the ball into the bottom corner of the goal for his first since arriving from Pakistan last week. 
By the 15th minute Havant were 3-0 up from their second penalty corner of the game. The injection was not stopped, but Toseeq cleverly span and moved the ball onto Matt Cox who, in turn, set up Portsmouth Grammar School teenager Ethan Hoddle to score his first national league goal.
Havant were now in control and moved the ball round with confidence. Alas, chances to put the game to bed were missed and Havant needed goalkeeper Chris Bristow to deny Clifton Robinsons with two smart saves with a minute left on the clock.
Havant’s first half dominance was not to be repeated after the Bristol visitors made some tactical half-time adjustments to restrict the home side’s distribution.
Havant were slow to counteract this and what resulted was 20 minutes of dominance from Clifton.
The visitors pulled a goal back in the 37th minute from open play and after a melee in front of goal when Tom Jarvie found the back board. Four minutes latter Clifton sent a shot over Havant’s bar and then had a goal correctly disallowed, and a long corner was awarded. From this corner the ball was hit into the circle to be defected into the Havant goal by Tom Bryant. It transpired after the game that Clifton admitted they did not get a touch on the ball ! 
Clifton were now right back in the game and threw attack after attack at Havant who struggled to get a hold on the game.
It was Maciej who settled the home supporters nerves in the 64th minute after a rebound of the Clifton fell to him. Havant now moved forward with more purpose but the final pass in the circle went astray too often.
Clifton made the positive move by removing their goalkeeper to play a kicking back – but this happened just after they went down to 10 men after a green card. Unfortunately, for them they ended up with 12 men on the field which resulted in a yellow card and they were down to 10 for the remaining minutes !
Havant exploited the numerical advantage winning a late penalty corner and Toseeq secured his man of the match award by flicking the ball into the netting to make the final score 5-2.
 

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