‘We need to be more ruthless’ – Clanfield make stunning start but drop Hampshire Premier League points against rock bottom Lyndhurst

In their penultimate game of 2021/22, they failed to punish rock bottom Lyndhurst.

Two goals up inside the opening five minutes, a late leveller gave the New Forest club a 2-2 draw - only the second time in 28 Senior Division games they had avoided defeat in an ultra-tough campaign.

‘We couldn’t have wished for a better start,’ said Blakeley after Olly Long - with his 14th goal of the season - and Fred Penfold had put Clanfield in early control.

‘We gave away a sloppy goal around the half-hour mark and that gave Lyndhurst a bit of confidence.

‘Credit to Lyndhurst, they never gave up, they kept on working - that’s something we’re probably lacking at the moment.

‘We are playing as individuals rather than as a team.

‘We’ll need to be ruthless next season. We should have won 6-2. We have to learn to punish teams rather than giving them hope.

‘We let Lyndhurst back in when they should have been out of sight.

‘It wasn’t disastrous, for 80 per cent of the game we were good. It was just the 20 per cent when we switched off and weren’t ruthless enough.’

Blakely handed starts to four of his club’s under-23s - centre halves Charlie Stuart and Harry Swatton, midfielder Morgan Cripps and striker Alex Chapman. In addition, there was a sub appearance from Tim Mbuga, whose availability has been patchy due to studying commitments.

Clanfield, who have been playing on a fortnightly basis for the past couple of months, bring the curtain down on their season on April 16 against Sway at Westleigh Park.