Hay. St Mary’s Reserves came away with a fortunate three points at Penybont after a tough encounter on a tricky pitch. The hosts took the lead before Alec Winstone equalised with a simple header; returning Ben Bevan then scored twice either side of an equalising goal to ensure Hay took the points.
The first-half started with both sides struggling to create chances with Penybont taking the lead when a corner was put into a danger area at the near-post where a flicked header beat Ian Jones. Hay were soon back into it though, with Winstone ever threatening from a set-piece, heading in from Bevan’s cross. Both sides were reduced to ten men when an altercation between Winstone, and the Penybont right-back resulted in both players being given their marching orders. Penybont should have taken the lead when they were awarded a penalty, after a trip from Jamie Howard inside the area, but Jones stood strong to deny the Penybont player from the spot. Hay punished the hosts for this miss when a corner was headed goalwards by Zack Snape who saw his effort blocked before Bevan fired into the top corner with the rebound. United made it two all though before half-time when yet another corner wasn’t dealt with and up popped a player at the back-post this time with a side-footed finish into an unguarded net.
The second-half saw the game open up, with more space to exploit especially down the wings. Hay opted to look for the pace of Bevan and Jon Sly up front, with David Evans chasing down everything too. The hosts were playing the long-ball with Hay’s midfield not really protecting their back-line when they counter-attacked. Sub goalie Mike Ward, who replaced the ill Jones, was rarely troubled and when he was called into action, made some routine saves. Hay scored the decisive goal just shy of the mid-way mark of the half; Bevan again scored it when he got goalside of the defence, and slid a right-foot shot past the ‘keeper. Penybont did come close to equalising when a free-kick powerfully rebounded off the bar but Hay defended well, especially Snape who was dominant in the air. At the other end, Bevan had a number of chances to complete his hattrick but couldn’t find that elusive finish, with the best one being a lob which just didn’t have enough height on it whilst an excellent counter-attack found Kevin Goodwin, who had run from one box to another to get on the end of a pass from Sly but his left-foot finish flew just past the upright. In the end, Hay battled through for the points with the slenderist of margins.
It was a second successive victory for the Saints, who face Sennybridge away this coming weekend. The strength and power of Bevan was a boost up front for Andrew Harris, whilst the performance of Snape at centre-half was also one to please the coach. The man of the match though goes to Evans, whose work-rate was superb throughout the match.
XI: Jones, Cooke, Bradley, C. Ward, Snape, Goodwin, Howard, Winstone, Evans, Sly, Bevan.
Sub: M. Ward