Sam’s Section: “We’ve got our goals and we’re closer to achieving them” Longworth believes as Hartpury extend Hellenic Premier lead
Hartpury University FC head coach, Martin Longworth says his side’s dreams are becoming more achievable after going nine points clear at the summit of the Hellenic League Premier.
It was a game won before half time with goals from Renato Prifri, Cheick Kone, Luke Salter and a brace from Nathan Jenkins showing a relentless performance which pleased head coach, Longworth.
“We spoke before the game about converting more chances and scoring more goals because I think we’ve won 1-0 three games in a row.
“It was really pleasing when we got the stats at half time, and we’d gotten in their [Brimscombe] box 25 times so to get five goals is really pleasing.
‘We’ve got our goals in mind and every game we play, and we win, we’re closer to achieving them,” Longworth said.
Out of all of the Hartpury goals, the second goal pleased Longworth the most as his side quickly turned defence into attack.
Goalkeeper, Stephen Sarkodie played an excellent ball over the top which picked out Louis Manning who fired a low cross into the danger zone to be turned home by Prifri on 42 minutes.
“It’s actually tough for Steve at times, I know he plays in goal and keeps us a lot of clean sheets, but he’s only in action probably a couple of times a game so he’s got to be on it.
“We know he has fantastic distribution; he’s such a good goalkeeper so we knew he could play that furthest pass forward.
“Brimscombe played a really low block so, when they were on the half way line and there was space in behind, Steve executed that pass really, really well.
“Louis has been brilliant in recent games, our player of the month last month.
“That goal was just great energy as we had everyone flood the box and we got the just rewards for it,” the Hartpury boss said.
It was one of the only times Hartpury attempted the long ball as the cold, frosty conditions almost didn’t allow either side to play that style.
This needed some tactical adjustments from Hartpury especially coming up against a defensively set-up Brimscombe side.
But the tweaks worked fantastically well for the hosts which Longworth couldn’t have been happier with.
“It looked very frosty, but the pitch was actually really soft. The ball moved really well; it always does on that surface.
“You knew that any long ball was going to skid straight through to the goalkeepers, so we had to play a couple more passes, play a little bit wider and when they were playing a back five, you really had to play that wider pass and go on the outside.
“It was really pleasing as well because we scored three goals from crosses tonight,” he said.
And with the game all but won at the break, it allowed Longworth to utilise his bench and manage his squad ahead of their top of the table clash with Mangotsfield on Saturday.
“It allowed us to manage the squad well because we’ve got two games in three days so we were able to mix it up and give some lads game time that they might not have had recently.
“The strength in this squad is good. We have four or five lads coming back into the squad as of next week.
“The boys have got to keep fighting for their shirts in every single moment, training session or game, it all really matters,” he said.
Hartpury will be hoping to open a 12 point gap at the top of the Hellenic Premier and make it 20 league games unbeaten when they meet Mangotsfield but will have to get past a couple of old players in Ellis Parker and Lewis Powell.
“They’ve got some really good players, a couple of ex-Hartpury lads which we know about such as, Ellis and then Lewis Powell who scored a hattrick in their last game and he’s an exceptionally good player. It will be great to see those lads again,” Longworth said.
And Longworth knows it will be a tough task for his side after the two clubs drew 0-0 in the reverse fixture just a month ago, but the head coach is confident, if Hartpury continue doing what they are currently doing, they should come out on the right side of the result.
“They played us last month or five weeks ago and it was a 0-0 game, so they’re a really good side and we’re looking forward to it being on a 3G pitch and cold conditions again.
“But we’ve just got to have the right mentality going into the game and it should hopefully be a very good game for the spectators.
“We just need to continue what we need to do,” he said.
Hartpury University FC travel to the Paul Sellick Brickwork Stadium on Saturday to face Mangotsfield United with kick off at 15:00
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