GFC not good enough at Hanworth

The Green Lions went to the promotion-chasing Villians on Tuesday evening in their penultimate game of the season and found themselves 2-0 down in the first 35 minutes thanks to strikes from George Wells and Sam Merson, before the home side sealed the victory that confirms their play-off status with a third goal in the 86th minute courtesy of defender Tom Bender.

‘At the end of the day we did not perform, we were not good enough and there were elements where we needed to step up and we were unable to,’ said Vance.

‘It was definitely a nice reminder for the lads, though, of what we often have to experience when we play teams away so they should have a bit more motivation for the last game against Bedfont to put in a good performance.’

The GFC manager also commented on the controversy involved in Tuesday’s fixture, including an incident where Hanworth Villa keeper Gary Ross appeared to drag Guernsey’s Keene Domaille to the ground before responding to Domaille’s resulting shove with a delayed drop to the floor.

‘We are hoping that the goalkeeper is as embarrassed at his actions as we were watching it, but it seemed like he was quite proud with the way he dealt with the situation so I cannot imagine he feels any embarrassment at all.

‘That was also by no means the only incident in the game, they played as if there was a real history between the two teams and it’s just not the game.’

The Green Lions have already sealed their place in next season’s Isthmian South Central thanks to a drastic turn around in form since the turn of 2023, but are now winless in four ahead of this weekend’s final trip of the season.

‘Finishing the season on a strong note is massively important for the lads and the experience we had on Tuesday provides an added incentive, so we really want to do this game justice,’ said the GFC boss.

‘They need to win to have any chance of avoiding automatic relegation but we won’t be thinking about that at all, I know they would not be if the roles were reversed, so for us it’s all about turning up and putting in a proper display.

‘We want to compete at this level and give the league a really good go, and we have shown over the last few months that we are more than capable of that, and we want to do that again in this final game even if the three points do not really mean much considering we cannot go up in the league.’

Any sort of result for the Green Lions in the Bedfont game would secure 15th in the league table, as Ashford Town are the only team still capable of overtaking Tony Vance’s and sit two points behind with a much inferior goal difference.