Hay St. Marys’ Reserves hit Kington Town Reserves for 8 this evening in an encounter which they dominated throughout. Slick passing coupled with some impressive finishing saw Zack Snape, Jon Sly (3), Kevin Goodwin (2), Will Goodwin and Haydn Williams get on the scoresheet despite the opponents experienced centre half pairing of Adriano Girolami and ‘Rambo’.
The Saints took the lead after left-winger Kevin Goodwin got round the Kington right-back, who bought him down inside the box. Snape stepped up to send former Dore Valley youth ‘keeper Tom Lewis the wrong way. A mis-kick from Lewis was superbly struck first-time by Sly to make it two soon after although Kington pulled a goal back through their tricky striker, who smashed a long-range effort into the top corner out of the reach of goalie Chris Lloyd. Hay stepped up a gear towards the end of the half with K. Goodwin forcing a save from Lewis with a low shot whilst Will Goodwin hit the post with a powerful effort. Snape had a decent header cleared off the line whilst K. Goodwin failed to hit the target from a good position with a lifted effort. The winger did get his goal towards the end of the half when he chased down a ball which looked to be going out before cutting back in and firing past the ‘keeper and defender on the line. A fourth goal for Hay came just before half-time when K. Goodwin directed a pass over the back-line to Sly, who superbly bought the ball down before shooting past Lewis at his near-post with his left-foot.
The second-half followed a similar pattern to the first with Hay dominating in every area of the field. Roll on/roll off subs for both sides failed to interupt the rhythm of the game and Hay were soon finding the net in the second-half. Sly completed his hattrick when he got on the end of a through ball; the replacement ‘keeper tripped Sly but the striker got back up and finished into the empty goal. A sixth goal was scored through W. Goodwin when he pounced on a defensive mix-up to roll the ball home. Steve Goodwin smashed a header against the bar whilst Brian Goodwin also went close with a long-range effort. Towards the end of the game, the Saints added two more with goals of the highest quality. A move down the left eventually made its way to S. Goodwin in the middle who played the ball into younger brother W. Goodwin; he spotted K. Goodwin on the right and picked him out allowing the winger to drill a ball into the far corner. Moments later, Liam Pugh made a burst out of defence, exchanging passes with K. Goodwin before superbly squaring the ball across the face of the goal where Haydn Williams slid in at the back-post to net his first ever goal at any level of football!
It was an excellent performance all round for the Saints Reserves and manager Andrew Harris is bound to be a very happy man this evening. He was very pleased with the fact that nearly half the squad this evening have been playing Under 18’s football for Hay in the past couple of seasons. There were many stand out performances this evening; the experience of Josh Davies and Mike Havard allowed others to play without pressure and it allowed many to shine. In particular, Snape was outstanding at the back playing in the middle whilst W. Goodwin up front played with superb intelligence with neat flicks, lay-offs and passes creating a number of moves.
Saints Reserves: Lloyd, Davies, Pugh, Snape, Williams, Jones, Havard, Wilkes, K. Goodwin, Sly, W. Goodwin.
Subs: B. Goodwin, S. Goodwin.