GFC’s last home game of the season falls flat

The Green Lions failed to roar as they would have wished against opponents who worked tirelessly and deservedly claimed all three points, as Tony Vance was willing to concede.

‘I think 3-2 flattered us, to be honest,’ said the GFC manager.

‘We had patches of good spells, but they were in about two or three, five-minute spells and that was about it.

‘They wanted to win more than us. They were more energetic than us.’

Hartley Wintney started brightly and Tom Vaudin made a couple of important interventions in the opening 20 minutes to prevent them from breaking the deadlock.

The first-half goal that the visitors merited came in the 38th minute when centre-back CJ Fearn drove home the rebound from close range after his initial header had been saved by Josh Addison.

The closest GFC came to scoring in the first half came in added time when Sam Murray’s well-struck volley from a tight angle was blocked by goalkeeper Adam Melville.

The home side came close to forcing an equaliser early in the second half with Ross Allen being denied twice in the space of a minute, but Hartley Wintney soon doubled their advantage as an unmarked Mason Obeng headed home while the defence looked for an offside flag that never came.

Murray got a goal back on the hour when he lashed home in a crowded box, but midway through the second half Sam Bartlett’s instinctive finish made the game safe for the visitors and made Dave Rihoy’s late header a consolation.

‘We had to change formations a couple of times, move personnel around, just try and do anything to try and create a spark and it just wasn’t there,’ Vance said.

‘At the end of the day, they came here with 12 players and they gained the energy from that and it showed what it meant to them, in what was a nothing game for them particularly, how pleased they were they got the win.

‘It wasn’t there from us tonight. Technically we were poor as well.

‘I didn’t like the game on the weekend because of the direct play of the opposition and I definitely didn’t like tonight either, but that was for different reasons.

‘I don’t want to finish like that, so I’ve asked improvement from everybody. I’m now glad we’ve got another game because if I was having to finish a season on that, I wouldn’t be happy.’

GFC finish their season away at Raynes Park Vale on Saturday.