An experimental Hayes & Yeading United side missing many key players was defeated by a second half Hungerford Town goal in the latest pre-season friendly at Bulpit Lane.
Hungerford had the better of the early exchanges and both Joe Gritt and Josh Lennie were called upon to block well hit shots from the same Hungerford player.
Then from a long throw in, an Adam Wallace header hit the United bar and bounced down before Marco Fanna scrambled the ball behind for a corner.
United finished the first half strongly. Andy Yiadom took advantage of a quickly taken free kick to send Fanna to the left by line and his low centre was met by the onrushing Oliver Kelly but he skied his shot.
A minute later, Yiadom passed to Daryl McLean who cut inside and shot low to the near post. The Hungerford goalkeeper dived to his right to gather the ball in.
Yiadom was at the heart of the next move, a delightful cross field pass to Kamara Wright. His cross was met with a diving header from Kelly and the Hungerford keeper did well to react with a save low to his left. Rob Hughes found Elliott Buchanan at the back post from the resulting corner, but his half volley was turned around the post by the Hungerford keeper.
Half time substitute Pierre Dubois came close just after half time after Yiadom’s low centre was half cleared and he fired the loose ball from the edge of the area just past the post.
Hungerford rallied and forced Josh Lennie into a smart save low to his right, but a minute afterwards, the only goal of the game came when a Ben McCready cross from the right was routinely headed home by the unmarked Wallace.
Lennie made another smart save after Gritt and Charlie Wassmer got in a muddle allowing a lot of space for a shot on target. However, United once again finished the half strongly, Daniel Wishart going inches wide with a shot following good approach play from Kelly and Dubois and Yiadom latching onto Kelly’s pass but having his shot deflected over by a last ditch challenge.
Report by Nick Bell.
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