The Saints started the game very nervous giving Bow Street too much respect early on and found themselves under pressure which resulted in the Magpies classy number 8 dropping his shoulder and waltzing past two saints defenders into the box but put his shot wide. Their pacy number 11 was causing the Hay back four numerous problems and on one occasion should have scored or passed but decided to flick the ball straight at keeper Kirkham. Hay did settle around the 20 minutes mark and start passing the ball around which resulted in Rob Snedden skipping by his marker down the left and sent in an inch perfect cross for strike partner Kevin Jones to head at goal but Nathan Bennet made a first class save to deny him.It was a mistake from Kirks which allowed the Magpies to go 1 up when he tried passing quickly to Chris Preece from a free kick which was intercepted and finished well by striker Andrew Carree. The game changed in the 37th minute when the Magpies Dean Evans was challenged by Hay’s Max Walker and fell and dislocated his knee,the game was held up for around 50 minutes waiting for an ambulance to take him to hospital. After the restart Hay looked a totally different side and looked the much more dangerous side in the 8 minutes leading up to half-time and nearly equalised with a well worked free kick taken by Snedden,he put in Phil Davies who cut it back for Jones who should have scored but was tackled the ball fell at the feet of Jamie Howard who fired over the crossbar.
After a quick half-time team talk the second half got under way with the Magpies hitting the outside of the post in the 47th minute. From 50 minutes on it was one way traffic for the Saints with the Magpies struggling to get out of their own half. Firstly Snedden hit the post with a classy freekick then Bennett made another great save when Snedz tried lobbing him from long range,from the resulting corner the ball was cleared only to find Mike Havard who hit it first time and his shot took a deflection to make it 1-1. The Saints drove forward looking for the winner backed by a noisey home crowd, substitute Mike Ward went by his marker and cut the ball back to Jones who turned quickly and hit it first time catching Bennett by surprise to put the Saints 2-1 up. Bow Street tried to up their game but their 2 danger men were now being tightly marked,Phil Davies man marked the number 11 and never gave him a sniff in the second half and Sam Powell did a good job on the classy number 8. Ollie Cooke came off the bench for the last 10 and was soon in the action playing a lovely one two with Jones who fired past Bennett for his second of the match. The whistle went shortly after this to end a quality match for the homeside.
This was a great win for the lads because Bow Street are a top 5 team from the league above.We rode our luck in the first half but showed our true quality in the second. The man of the match award is a tough one with several players getting votes from team mates and fans. Mike Havard, Phil Davies and Kevin Jones were picked out but the player who got most and got voted m.o.m by the Bow Street team was centre back Chris Preece.
Team- Bryan Kirkham,Graeme Keeble,Chris Preece,Mike Havard,Phil Davies,Jamie Howard,Max Walker,TomWeaver,Gavin Williams, Rob Snedden. subs-Sam Powell,Ollie Cooke,Mike Ward.
Everyone at Hay st Marys wishes Dean Evans a speedy recovery and is back playing sooner rather than later.