Rob Mcnamara hit a 91st minute winner to give The Saints three points against his former club Talgarth Town in a 4-3 victory.
Rob Mcnamara.
The home team had been cruising at 3-0 with 18 minutes to go but the visitors fought back and grabbed an equaliser in the 88th minute only to see their former team mate bend a 25 yard effort into the top corner.
The first half was a nonentity really, Steve Goodwin went close for The Saints with a header from a Hackett corner, Rob Mcnamara hit the bar from 35 yards after seeing the Talgarth keeper off his line, Talgarth’s Lee Brooks should have done better when he beat the Hay back line who were too flat but he screwed his effort well wide when one on one with Josh Davies.
The remainder of the half everyone huffed and puffed but not a lot happened, Will Goodwin produced some nice touches when bringing others into play and the visitors looked dangerous on the counter. Ht 0-0
The Saints took the lead in the 49th minute, a Hackett corner to the back post was headed back across goal by Chris Preece, Sam Bradley got on the end of it and headed in the opener from close range for 1-0.
On the hour mark it was two, Hackett stole the ball off player manager Spencer Cleaves near the half way line, he accelerated away, beat the last man before finishing with ease to make it 2-0.
Five minutes later it was 3-0, a Steve Goodwin long ball into the box was called for by the Talgarth keeper, just has he was about to catch it his team mate jumped and headed it behond him to the oncoming Preece who had gambled, Preece rolled the ball into an empty net from 3 yards out.
It was now a matter of how many The Saints would score as they piled the pressure on their near neighbours, however, a mix up in the Hay defence saw Adi Lawford latch on to a Stu Snedden back pass, Lawford made no mistake and it was 3-1 with ten minutes to go.
That soon became 3-2 after Jordan Baker hit a beauty from the right side of the box, the visitors had their tails up now and in the 88th minute a cross into the box was met by Cleaves, it hit him on the back and looped up over Davies to make it 3-3.
On 90 minutes The Saints were awarded a free kick on the half way line, Hay manager Tom Weaver was screaming for his big men to get in the box but instead they took a quick one, 3 or 4 passes later it found Jamie Howard, he crossed an inch perfect ball to Jack Biggs who was on the edge of the area, Biggs headed it back to the oncoming Rob Mcnamara who was about 25 yards from goal, Mcnamara hit it first time with his left foot, the ball flew into the top left hand corner of the goal giving the keeper no chance. Seconds later the referee blew the final whistle.
Ft 4-3.
The first half was like an end of season mid table game that nobody could be bothered to play in, in fact it didn’t really liven up until the last ten minutes when Talgarth scored three and Macca netted the winner. Manager Tom Weaver said “It was good to get the win, the game didn’t get going until the last ten, once again we weren’t at our best but a wins a win especially with the other two teams drawing”.
Tom picked out Sam Bradley as his man of the match.