Hayes 7 Yate Town 2
AFTER going so close to booking their ticket into the next round last Saturday, this FA Trophy third round replay at Hayes on Tuesday was a huge disappointment for Yate with a scoreline that in no way mirrored their performance.
Yate conceded two sloppy goals, the first scrambled in from a corner and the second after a fumbled free kick, but they pulled the score back to 2-1 with a penalty by Matt Rawlins after Justin Pritchard had been brought down.
With a strong wind in their favour to come, Yate were feeling confident for the second half. They were hit on the break from a corner for 3-1 but Pritchard pulled another goal back following Rawlins' flick-on and Yate were well in contention at 3-2.
But then it all went wrong. Shane Andrews was sent off for a second bookable offence and Hayes scored two further goals, both blatantly offside, according to Yate boss Rich Thompson.
Thompson was then ordered to leave the technical area after calling out to the referee. With the score at 5-2 and with a man down you would have thought things could not get a lot worse. But they did.
Two very dubious penalties were yet to come, the first after keeper Court took the ball before the player and the second following a clean tackle by Steve Campbell, for a final score of 7-2.
"This was a freak result," said Thompson. "The large number of supporters who were there can appreciate the way things went. It was very disappointing after our good performance on Saturday when we should have won the game."
l Yate will not be dwelling on this result but will be focusing on their next league match this Saturday at home to Marlow.
Yate Town 1 Hayes 1
YATE were desperately unlucky not to win this FA Trophy third round tie at the first attempt against their Conference South opponents.
They did more than enough to secure the game but with the score standing at 1-1 they were denied by the woodwork plus a tremendous display by Hayes goalkeeper Kevin Davies.
Yate went at their visitors right from the start but Hayes survived a series of corners and free-kicks before taking the lead on 36 minutes from a free kick when Rob Bixby headed into a crowded goalmouth for Kieran Knight to slide in and apply the finishing touch.
Yate keeper Tony Court was tested late in the half but four minutes after the interval the home side equalised when Justin Pritchard touched on a Dave Elsey corner for Adam Sims to score at the back post.
This spurred Yate on and in a period of intense second half pressure they did everything but score, with Davies making a fine acrobatic save from an Elsey header followed by tipping a good effort from Andy Neal onto the crossbar.
Adam Sims was then desperately unlucky when his fierce long range shot struck a post.
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