The Saints travelled to Bryn y Castell to take on Knighton Victoria, unfortunately due to a virus which saw three players pulling out on the day, Dan Jones was only able name ten players in the starting line-up.
As expected Knighton got at Hay straight from the off and put the back four under a lot of pressure on five minutes a ball across the box was met by a striker who’s shot was well saved by stand in keeper Jones, another blow for the Saints was captain Garry Keeble getting injured in that move so he took the gloves for the remainder of the game. Knighton went ahead on fifteen minutes with the pacey winger slotting in the opener beyond Keeble’s stretch. It didn’t take long for Hay to reply with a corner half cleared the ball fell for Dave Evans who laid the ball off for Gareth Pugh with his left footed shot firing into the corner, a well deserved equaliser Hay were well organised and made it difficult for the home side to make clear cut chances. Half Time 1-1.
The second half was as lively as the first, with both teams looking to attack. Knighton regained their lead after 55 minutes, a corner was floated in with the one free man in the area who side footed a volley into the roof of the net. 2-1. The home side had barely stopped celebrating before the Saints drew level again, a chipped ball forward by Harris was met by the on rushing Pugh who chipped the keeper from 20 yards for his second of the afternoon. 2-2. It became very open and both sides had chances to go ahead the closest being Evans whos shot from the angle flew by the post. On 75 minutes it was 3-2, the lively knighton midfielder ‘xavi’ jinked his way through a sea of green and white and his delicate chip gave Keeble no chance. 3-2. With 12 minutes to go Dan changed formation and put Evans upfront with the hardworking Cooke and his change worked Jones played a cross field ball to Evans who skipped past two challenges and drove into the box his cross was cleared but only to Pugh who smashed in under the keeper to claim his first ever hat trick. 3-3. Knighton looked for the win and piled men forward but could only get shots in from range, though Harris did clear off the line from a corner. The game got turned totally on its head in the final minute, a long punt out of defence was chased by Snedden who cut back onto his right foot and drilled the ball across the keeper to make it 4-3 a few moments later the ref blew for time and the Saints claimed a valuable victory with a man less for 90 minutes.
Hat-trick man Gareth Pugh.
I’ve never been involved in a game like this before, even though we only turned up to make it difficult, to get a result with ten men, we believed from the start that we could get something from the game. Knighton played good football but I believe that we wanted it more and it was crucial we ended our losing run. The whole team were unbelievable but a few stand out performers today, Stuart Snedden battled all day and deserved to get the winning goal, Ollie Cooke upfront was a danger all day but Man Of The Match is easy this week … Gareth Pugh – Take a Bow!
Saints – G.Keeble, J.Harrington, D.Jones, P.Williams, A.Simmonds, A.Harris, G.Pugh, S.Snedden, D.Evans, O.Cooke