Hay Reserves kept their early season form going to go top of the table after a hard earned victory at Brecon Road against a new look Presteigne Reserves. Hay took all three points thanks to a Jake Atkinson strike midway through the first half in a game that could really have gone either way.
Harris was once again without the injured Zach Snape (ankle) whilst John Sly (groin) and Sam Bradley (holiday) were also missing along with regular goal scorer and match reporter Kevin Goodwin away with his beloved Hereford United.
Hay had much better of the early exchanges opting to go with the same set up that has proved successful in recent weeks and were unlucky not to go ahead in the first ten minutes with speculative efforts from both Rob Snedden and Jamie Howard.
It wasn’t all Hay however with Presteigne looking to break at every opportunity with the ball over the top, unfortunately for them this was met with fierce resistance from Hay’s inform back three with Ceri Ward in particular leading by example.
The high tempo exchanges were starting to turn the game Presteigne’s way with Hay playing deeper trying to play their way out of trouble. The goal came around the 25 minute mark when Presteigne had a good shout for a penalty after Ceri Ward out muscled the young forward to let the ball run through to the keeper.
The ball was played left out to captain Alec Winston who switched the play to the right with a testing deep ball which Atkinson got on the end of, faced one on one with the full back Atkinson showed great composure to ghost past him before lifting it over the keeper and sending the home crowd into raptures.
This only seemed to inspire the away side and led to a great contest which would carry on throughout the remainder of the game. Hay were again restricted to long range efforts whilst keeper Chris Lloyd was kept busy and had to deal with a few tricky moments before pulling off a fine save, getting down to the bottom corner.
H/T 1-0
The second half certainly didn’t disappoint with both sides looking for the crucial goal. This didn’t materialise for either side however and as the nerves began to fray the cards began to show with two bad challenges in two minutes, the first on Snedden ( when through on goal) and the second very late on the impressive Atkinson. Referee Jack Watkins also had to deal with Alec Winston after the centre half went in one to many times for the away fans liking bringing down their tricky winger.
The final whistle brought the biggest cheer of the night as news of results elsewhere made this result all the more important.
Harris was delighted with the attitude shown by the players on the night and hopes this can be taken into Saturday’s game at Rhayeder, although there are a few things that will need working out in the next few weeks.
Although there were some excellent performance on the night, (young Toby Johnson growing in confidence each game) my man of the match would have to be Ceri Ward for an all out display that hopefully is the sign of things to come from him this season.