04:23PM, Wednesday 24 September 2025
Photo credit: Charlie Carter
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Flackwell Heath may have been guilty of taking their eye off the ball in the league this week, with their big FA Cup clash against Bracknell Town looming on the horizon this weekend.
The Heathens have made it through to the third qualifying round of the competition for the first time in 11 years, and the excitement that’s been building ahead of Saturday’s clash with the Robins at Wilks Park, might just have impacted their performances in the league this week.
That’s the view of manager Chris Ayres who felt they lacked a bit of focus in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leverstock Green and Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Enfield.
In both matches, Harlem Hale rescued a point for the home side after they’d fallen behind. They would have expected to win both matches against teams lower in the table and two wins would have taken them to the summit of the Southern League Central Division.
Instead, they sit seventh but remain unbeaten in the league this season.
He said: “We went into the two games knowing that if we won those two games we could have gone top of the league.
“So yeah, it’s a bit disappointing to only get two points. People said to me that the FA Cup could interfere with players being not as motivated for league games. But maybe we have taken our eye off the ball a little bit.
“Yeah, it’s been disappointing because no disrespect to the opposition we’ve given ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb in both games.
“We’ve been 1-0 down and then we’ve got a goal back and have been pushing for a winner, but it’s probably been a little too late.
“But it shows how far we’ve come that we are disappointed with that. We’ve got to try and move on from it.”
Despite the frustration of failing to pick up maximum points in either match, Ayres took some encouragement from his side’s second half display against Enfield. Hale is also coming into form after joining the club this summer having netted for the third time in five matches.
“I thought we deserved to win last night (Tuesday). First half I felt we were flat. We spoke at half-time and told them it wasn’t good enough. There was a change in tempo in the second half. Before we got the goal we missed some massive chances. We got the goal, but we couldn’t get the winner.
“We said to the boys, we’ll have to start better than that on Saturday, with the calibre of opposition. We need to be starting right and getting the first goal and that helps us as the game goes on.”
Flackwell will hope to put themselves in the mix for promotion once again this season - having made it to the play-off final last season. However, they’re having to adapt to the loss of several key forwards who’ve gone on to establish themselves with clubs further up the non-league pyramid.
Replacing the goals of Wiktor Makowski, Michael Harding, and Jethro Odumosu will be difficult and they’re having to do that while playing league and cup matches
“I think that I’ve said it before. It’s been tough trying to replace them (Wiktor Makowski and Michael Harding). “They’ve gone on to perform and score goals at step 2 and step 3, so it shows you the calibre of what they were for us.
“It is tough for the boys coming in. One of them is stepping up to the level. Harlem Hale seems to be getting back to full fitness, which is a massive plus, he’s scored three in his last four. Getting him back will help the others playing up there.”
Ayres added: “If we’d have got six points from the two games we would have been top. I think it will start hotting up over the next six weeks. We’re unbeaten and you can say that’s good. We haven’t lost yet. You also don’t know if they’re good results yet, because the league hasn’t really settled down or formed yet. If you look at Enfield that was only their fourth game last night.”
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