The Saints bowed out of the ER Jenkins cup 2-4 to favourites Llanfair United.
The visitors showed why are the team to beat this year with a strong start which saw Hay pegged back early on, after 8 minutes a good move down the left saw a cross come in which was finished with ease by the Llanfair number 7.
The homeside were still under pressure in the early stages of the half but managed to equalise after a rare attack, youngster Jack Biggs never gave up chasing a through ball and after a lucky deflection he netted from 8 yards to make it 1-1.
The remainder of the half was fairly even, Llanfair hit the post and also saw a couple of efforts go over the bar when perhaps they should of done better, for the Saints Josh Wisniewski turned in the box but his shot was saved well when in on goal, his strike partner Kevin Jones also had a good chance but his effort went wide. ht 1-1.
The visitors went in front again in the 48th minute with a goal that looked offside, a Llanfair player shot and it looked like it was going in anyway but another player who looked to be standing in an offside position toe poked it over the line, the goal stood, 1-2. The homeside went to sleep in the next ten minutes as the visitors opened up a 1-4 lead after some quick counter attacking football.
The Saints were the dominant side in the last quarter of the game and managed to pull a goal back after a cleverly worked free kick, while everyone was waiting for the ball to be crossed or shot, Jones flicked it to stand in skipper Chris Preece who had casually jogged by everyone, Preece hitting a first time effort past the diving keeper to make it 2-4.
Goalscorer Chris Preece.
Youngster Wilf Ratcliffe came on and did very well on the right, he battled for everything which gave the team a lift, a couple of chances were missed near the end, if one had gone in it might have given Llanfair a fright but to their credit they defended well and saw the clock run down. Ft 2-4.
This was my first look at Llanfair and I was impressed, they have some very good individuals, the Griffiths lad in the centre and Gethin up front stood out but it was the work rate of the whole team which impressed me the most especially the number 10 who was box to box the whole game. We did well in patches but were guilty in my opinion of over playing it at the back when under pressure and they(LLanfair) forced us into errors with their pressing game, we did well though bar that mad ten minute period where we conceded three goals.
Next up Llanfyllin Town at home kick off 2.30pm Saturday.