Harborough Town Reserves manager Tony Sansome on their 2-1 win against Irchester United Reserves:
“Last minute winners always seem the sweetest don’t they? At least if you’re on the right side of that winner. Irchester will find it hard to take coming so late, but considering the chances we created (and spurned) I thought we were full value for our win.
Irchester took the lead with a cracking finish although we were far from happy that a clear foul wasn’t given in the build up, however it wasn’t and we didn’t close down the home player and he unleashed an unstoppable shot. We carried on creating clear goalscoring opportunities but must have left our shooting boots at home. Josh King, Matt Chapman and Tay Holland all had excellent chances. We came out after half time and looked to impose ourselves on Irchester and I do think we were better second half, King and Alfie Harris missing excellent opportunities within the first couple of minutes of the restart, we were level on 53 though after good work from Chapman found King who made no mistake for his 20th of the season. We then had a spell where we went too long. Eventually we got the ball down and started to play well again, Luke Hartley coming off the bench and created a chance for King, how the keeper kept it out I’ll never know. Embarrassing for me as I was celebrating the goal. Time was running out and we gambled by going down to a back three to get an extra body up top and it paid dividends when Chapman (the player sent up top) scrambled the ball home.
Difficult to pick out players from a team performance but teenagers Holland and Jack Clipston were excellent in midfield, as were Chapman and Harris. We were a little worried before the game as we had a lot of players missing today, although I’m sure most Reserve sides could say the same, it’s a credit to our squad depth that we were still able to field five subs.
Good luck to Irchester for the remainder of the season, they were organised and worked hard for their manager, we have had two good games against them without a single yellow card from either side.”