Holyport's new joint manager says team 'deserved to win' following 2-1 victory

Holyport’s new joint manager Dan Rapley said his team ‘deserved to win’ on Saturday as they secured a victory and took home three points to kick-start their season.

Port went into their Combined Counties Premier Division North clash with Edgware and Kingsbury looking to bounce back after a humbling opening day 5-1 defeat to Wokingham and an FA Cup extra preliminary round exit at the hands of local rivals Burnham.

They delivered the goods, securing a 2-1 away victory at the Silver Jubilee Stadium.

In May, it was confirmed that club stalwarts Rapley and Lee Ovens had been appointed as the side’s new management team after former boss Adam Hopkins stepped down from his role.

The club finished in eighth place in the Premier Division North league last season and narrowly missed out on a play-off spot.

Reflecting on Saturday’s match, Rapley said it ‘went to plan’ and the team put in a good performance.

“I think we deserved more from the games we’ve played previously, and I think it’s just a weight off everyone’s shoulders now we’ve got our first three points.

“A weight off mine and Lee’s shoulders, a weight off the players shoulders and it’s just something to build on now.”

The side were 2-0 up by half-time, thanks to midfielder Adam Forisky who scored in the 16th and 33rd minutes.

“Set piece goals are not really something we’ve been scoring in pre-season, so it was good to get two of those,” Rapley added.

He admitted Forisky is not known as a ‘goal-scoring midfielder’, but was encouraged by the brace.

He said: “I mean if he’s finding [those] positions now, it must be just the way our system’s working, for him to get in those positions to score the goals. Any goal’s a good goal for me.”

Rapley said the ‘all-round good team performance’ was a highlight from the game.

“We dug in when they [Edgware] got one back in the second half.

“I think our performance in the second half to shut them out for the last 20 minutes was probably exactly what we needed for ourselves to learn how to do that.

“Because obviously we’re a new squad, we’ve got a whole host of new players.

“Every game at the moment is just learning and building on the last game and building on the last game.

“So, we learnt a lot, we got what we deserved, because I think we deserved to win the game.”

Ex-players Rapley and Ovens previously managed the reserves and led them to a third-place finish in the Thames Valley Premier League last season.

Rapley said the step up to managing the first team has been ‘really difficult to start with’.

“Obviously the step-up in calibre of players, the pace of the game, the physicality of what I’m seeing now.

“We’ve had to put a whole squad together, which has not been easy.

“We’ve had to try and get a good 20-25 players who we think can push Holyport forward this year, so that’s been really difficult.

“But I think now we’ve sort of got a good core 16 players, it’s just [about] adding those extras on the end.

“We’ve got a bit more time to pick and choose what sort of player we want.”

Rapley added each game is a ‘learning curve for everyone’.

“If we get how we play right, and make sure we learn from any mistakes in previous games, I think that’s all we can do at the minute, and just make sure we just keep going forward every game.”

“The old school motto is ‘determination beats talent’.

“We just need to turn up with the mindset that we can win every game, and then we’ll just go from there,” Rapley added.