Gaffer reflects on cup win
Hawks manager Lee Bradbury said that the Hawks “didn’t start well” in what was a “tough game” against Southern League Merthyr Town. “We went 1-0 down and had a mountain to climb but to be fair to the boys the dug in to grind the result out. We had a lot of the ball in the final third but couldn’t quite make it happen for us but second half we tweeked it a little bit, Foggy came on and gave us that added little spark we needed today and then we end up getting the goal back through Jason Prior and the I felt we would go on and win the game.”
Lee would also point out that he didn’t quite envisage the substitution of James Hayter to have had quite as quick an impact as it did. “I didn’t quite see James scoring from his first touch but he’s done it all of his career, he’s a great finisher and it’s great when you make a substitution and it pays off because sometimes it doesn’t and that is the risk you take.”
The reason behind the James Hayter substitution was due to the fact that “a lot of crosses were going into the box and we just felt that he could help Jason and the team and he did, the first cross coming in from the corner and he gets his head on it and it’s 2-1. We managed to see it out, we had to defend for our lives the last 10 minutes they threw the kitchen sink at us as you’d expect in an FA Cup tie.”
Despite being frustrated with the opening, the gaffer still felt that the Hawks were the better side. “I was disappointed with the first 10 minutes and then we went on the front foot and the mentality we have recently wasn’t there but for 80 minutes we were the better side.”
Henry Deacon
Henry Deacon Media 