Thursday 1 May 2003 - Westleigh Park - kick off 7.30pm Dr Martens Premier Division

With Frankie Bennett absent due to work committments and Gary Kemp failing to recover from the back injury sustained against Stafford, Stuart James and Jamie Gosling were recalled. One further change saw Dan Cleverley given a starting spot up front alongside Jason Eaton. The opening exchanges were largely confined to the middle of the surprisingly excellent Westleigh Park surface but from their first threatening attack of the night Havant took the lead. As has been the case so often recently the goal stemmed from an individual error as Iain Harvey’s slip gave Davis a shooting chance. His effort was well blocked by Mark Bryant only for Haughton to head the rebound into the unguarded net. Against a side who had scored 14 goals in their last three matches this was just the start City did not want and they struggled to prevent the game being taken well away from them before the half hour mark. Haughton almost grabbed his second five minutes later and Blake also went close. Ex-City defender Masson then headed a 25th minute corner narrowly over. Having weathered this storm Havant, understandably given the number of games they had played recently, seemed to tire and City began to look capable of finding an equaliser. A rare venture forward from Matt Coupe saw him fire a low shot inches wide before Jim Rollo’s rising shot just cleared the bar. However, any comeback hopes were dealt a blow in first half stoppage time. A long ball forward caught out Mike Trought and suddenly Fennemore was running clear on goal. He made no mistake, slipping the ball easily past Bryant.

The second half began with the 40 or so City fans seeing if they could chant non-stop for 45 minutes (which they managed and more) to take their mind off the football their team was producing (or more accurately not producing) in front of them. City were almost gifted a way back into the game on 53 minutes when Sparshatt dropped a James cross. Rollo collected the loose ball but could only shoot straight at the recovering keeper. Gosling did test the keeper three minutes later with a 20 yard effort but City then had another close escape as Harvey was forced to clear Blake’s shot off his own line. Eaton could have done better than tamely shoot straight at Sparshatt after 70 minutes and he was replaced moments later by Jefferies. The substitute should have scored with his first touch, blasted over the bar from just six yards out. With four minutes remaining Havant scored their third goal. Blake’s shot looked to be of little threat to Bryant until a deflection off Harvey completely wrong-footed the keeper. Into stoppage time City finally gave their loyal supporters something to really cheer about. Despite looking at least two-yards offside Jefferies ran onto Simon Gilbert’s pass and confidently rolled the ball past Sparshatt into the corner of the net.