Hay Sunday Saints started the season with an away trip to Rosie Athletic FC in the new look Hereford Sunday league.
The pitch at Rosie looked like it hadn’t be mowed all summer!
Hay started the stronger of the two teams ,showing some good interplay from the team which had a host of new faces on show , however, after 10 minutes Manager Gareth Ratcliffe had to make his first change after a 50/50 in the centre of the park resulted in full back Harry Ratcliffe coming off second best in a tough challenge.
Hay took the lead 5 minutes after when Paul Ward-Wills split the defence with a pass to Craig “Bruce” Forsyth whose pace beat the offside trap which saw the striker one on one with the keeper and he slotted home from 10 yards.
Rosie raised their game after this and where level 10 minutes later with a thunderbolt of a shot into the top corner from 25 yards giving goalkeeper Tom Bevan no chance.
It was close up until to the 44th minute when the Saints defence didn’t clear the ball and a deflected shot beat Bevan and a defender on the line to put the hosts 2-1 up at the break.
The second have started very poorly and the Saints found themselves 4-1 down after 2 quick goals, at this point the visitors made some changes to their formation which saw them get on top for the last 25 minutes and for the last 25 minutes.
The Saints pulled a goal back following a curling free kick in to the box from Ben Bevan which was met bravely by Forsyth. Hay continued to push to get something out of the game and in the last 5 min Rosie nearly conceded again but for a great save by their keeper. Ft 4-2.
Manger Gareth Ratcliffe was pleased with the performance despite the result Ratcliffe said “The boys played well against a strong team on a very poor pitch. The grass was very long and affected the team in the way we could play. We had a number of injuries but luckily with the Herefordshire FA running the rolling sub rule we were able to get around this but it did disjoint the team. There were some good displays Ben Bevan had a good game in defence and Brucie played well all game. The Man of the Match goes to Harry Gilbet.
Match report by G.Ratcliffe.