The Saints travelled to Hereford this morning with a depleted side due to injuries to play The Presidents Club whom they had beaten twice already this season. The Saints started much the better of the two teams and were soon awarded a penalty after a trip in the home teams box. Wayne Evans put the penalty wide to the relief of the homeside. The Saints put more and more pressure on the home keeper who made several good saves, Hay were also guilty of missing a host of chances. The Presidents club ventured into the Saints half for the first time on the half hour mark and were awarded a corner from which they opened the scoring against the run of play their big centre half getting a free header at the back post. Wayne Evans was having a good game in the centre of midfield threading through balls but The Saints couldn’t put any of them away. The Presidents had another corner and scored again on the stroke of half time. ht 0-2.
Manager Gareth Rattcliffe changed things at half time bringing Gareth Jenkins into the centre of midfield which worked well within 10 minutes Hay were back in the game after Jenkins scored from 16 yards out into the bottom left corner. Hay piled on the pressure during the second period which resulted in another penalty when John Sly was tripped in the box when through on goal. The ref showed a yellow when it should of been red. Gareth Jenkins stepped up to take it but blasted it straight at the keeper luckily Zac Snape was on hand to put the rebound away. At this stage it looked the only outcome you could see with 20 to go was a Saints win. Hay pushed and pushed for the winner but a break away and another corner resulted in the Presidents centre half scoring a header to win the match for the home side. m.o.m Wayne Evans.
I felt that The Saints had about 15 good scoring chances to the homesides 4 so to lose 3-2 was very unjust. I also felt the referee should have sent two of the home team players off if he’d followed the letter of the law. The only person he threatened to send off was me when I walked on with some water to treat one of our injured players. (very strange).