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Havant & Waterlooville v Parkway | Match PreviewBy Jack Hobbs
After claiming last week’s 0-4 drubbing to Frome Town as ‘one of his lowest points in management’, Chris McPhee and his Parkway side are looking to bounce back against Havant & Waterlooville this Saturday.
The Yellows were sent crashing out of the FA Cup in the First Qualifying Round at Bolitho Park, but McPhee is determined to make the wrongs right this week.
Both Havant and Parkway sit on four points apiece after five games played, with the Hampshire side sat two places above Parkway in 17th.
“It’s another big game”, said the 42-year-old.
“It’s another opportunity for us to get out there and do our very best to put some points on the board.
“We’ve had two good training sessions. We’ve worked really hard in those sessions, reflected on the game, looked back at some footage with the players, and gone over some areas where we can be a lot better. We’re desperate as a group of players, group of staff, and to go out there on Saturday and give a true account of ourselves.
“We felt, after Saturday, that there were several things that we didn’t do right in the game, and we let ourselves down, the club down, and it it’s not a nice feeling to come off the pitch knowing you could have done more.
“Everyone that went to the game has gone away feeling really rough and almost let down by us. Going out of such a fantastic competition in the way that we did, it’s not something that we’re proud of by any stretch, and we want to try and make sure that we go back into the league with renewed vigour.
“We’re desperate to get our season reignited and up and running and go out there and make sure that whatever happens during the game, whether it’s setbacks, whether it’s disappointment, whether it’s mistakes, we can’t just fold.
“We’re exploring different adjustments within the squad to give ourselves something a little bit different and maybe make ourselves a bit more resilient. We’ve looked at a different shape as well, so we’ve always got a bit of a Plan B.
“In the league, we’ve had five very tough games against teams that should be in and around the top 10. But if we want to be amongst the top 10, we have to start picking up some big points and winning games against those guys.
“As I said before, we’ve been in winning positions in three of those games so far of the season and if we could have been a bit more resilient and protected our goal a little bit more than then we would have picked up more points – that’s part of the parcel of football.
“We know that Havant & Waterlooville were up there last season and they’re a good side, a well-run club, and they got some very good players, as have a lot of teams in this league.
“What we’ve seen already this season, only five games in, is that anyone can beat anyone on any given day.
“For us to get a positive result, we’ve got to be bang at it from player one to 16. We’ll go there with a squad that are desperate to succeed and desperate to get back to winning ways and kick on.”
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