Match Report | Havant & Waterlooville 3-0 Gloucester City AFC

A Ryan Seager hat-trick was the difference in what was a dismal display from the Tigers leaving us winless in our last four matches.

The game started quickly with both sides having their fair share of possession within the opening moments of the game and within 10 the man of the afternoon Seager nearly opened the scoring after pouncing on Jared Thompson's mistake, but the keeper did well to recover by palming the shot wide.

Joe Hanks then went close with a chance of his own, breaking into the box and shifting the ball onto his weaker foot, however the shot just wide of Lorenz Ferdinand's left post.

The game then became very slow with both teams not having much to shout about and then City were forced to make a change. Harry Emmett went down off the ball and couldn't continue, Dylan Jones came on to replace him on his weaker side up the left-flank.

As we entered the back end of the first-half, the hosts went on the counter-attack up City's right-hand side after an unsuccessful set-piece, Seager proved more than a handful for Jones and Hanks, the latter leaving a leg out which the Hawks number 9 bought, resulting in the referee pointing to the spot.

Seager stepped up and converted sublimely with Thompson diving the correct way, however the striker's shot was too powerful, crashing the post and the net bulged and that ended the half.

The second-half began and within 12 minutes, the hosts doubled their lead. Olly Pendlebury broke through the withering backline and slid the ball across to Seager who was in the right place at the right time to slot home his second of the afternoon.

City really struggled to create anything in the second-half despite substitutes Kieran Phillips and Kane Simpson being added to the frame and before we knew it, Seager had his hat-trick.

The Hawks broke up their right-flank once again and this time a brilliantly placed cross fell right onto the head of Seager, who steered the header into the bottom left corner to send City home empty handed.

"Overall we are obviously very disappointed, one thing we told the lads was that they (H&W) take their chances and we gave away a cheap penalty just before half-time. I thought we were decent in the first-half aside from that.

"Then in the second-half we were miles off it, then you try and change things up and get something out of them and it never materialised. The performance was unacceptable at the end of the day, bitterly disappointed.

"Every game in this league is a big game, I am looking no further than Tiverton on Saturday. That is a big game. We will go again as a team and prepare a plan to do everything we can to win the game. I will put out a team that represents me as well as the club."

Our next game is Tiverton Town FC at home on Saturday January 24th 3pm kick-off, get your tickets here.