Hay St. Mary’s Reserves got off to a winning start to 2011, with a 4-2 home victory over lowly placed Sennybridge. Goals from Gareth Davies, Dave Evans, Gareth Pugh and Kevin Goodwin were enough to overcome a resillient Sennybridge team.
The Saints showed signs of a team with a lack of match practice as they struggled to settle in the opening stages. The visitors were looking the more threatening team, playing some decent football which suggested they were much better than their league position suggests. ‘Keeper Mike Ward had to be alert on a number of occasions when Bridge broke at pace. Yet, despite the promising start from Sennybridge, it was the Saints who took the lead when a ball over the back-line made its way to Davies, in an unfamiliar position up top, after staying up from a set-piece and he bought the ball down before steadying himself and slotting home. The visitors looked for an instant reply and good work down the left allowed their striker to cut in and a low shot looked to be heading to the near corner but Ward made a fine diving save to deny him. Pugh and Will Goodwin had half-chances off-target as Hay failed to extend their one goal advantage.
The second-half again saw Hay failed to settle initially but nerves were eventually calmed when Evans broke the offside trap to fire home from 12 yards out. With that goal, Bridge were forced to push more men forward leaving space for the Saints to exploit on the counter-attack. The third goal was the strike of the day from Pugh, as he picked up the ball 25 yards out and fired a powerful long-range shot into the back of the net, out of reach of the away goalie. Credit to Sennybridge though, as they pushed forward and were rewarded with a goal when a free-kick from the right was swung in dangerously and a gliding header beat Ward. Hay’s fourth was scored by K. Goodwin, who made up for his one on one miss after seeing a chipped effort over the ‘keeper drop agonisingly wide, when he a loose clearence was controlled and hit first-time from 25 yards into the corner out of the reach of the despairing dive from the ‘keeper. In the final couple of minutes, Sennybridge scored their second of the afternoon when a corner dropped loose and was eventually smashed home from close-range.
Having not played for over six weeks, it was always going to take time for Hay to get into their stride against Sennybridge. The visitors looked a useful outfit at times, playing some neat football but Hay’s pace and counter-attacking football, especially in the second-half, did the damage. Next up for Dan Jones and his team is the visit of Prestiegne Reserves on Saturday. A thanks goes to Andrew Harris who stepped in today in place of Jones, who wasn’t present due to work commitments.
Hay: Ward, James, Davies (Keeble), Williams, Simmonds, W. Goodwin, Johnson, Pugh, K. Goodwin, Evans, Snedden (Ward-Willis).