Hayes & Yeading ended their pre-season warm up games with a comfortable 5-0 win over Thame United at the ASM Stadium on Tuesday evening, the downside being an injury to Luke Williams which looks like it may sideline him for a while.

Nas Bashir’s side got off to the perfect start with two goals inside the opening nine minutes, both created by the aforementioned midfielder Williams. The first strike came on seven minutes when Tom Cadmore brought the ball out of defence and found Williams who advanced before sliding the ball through to Pierre Joseph-Dubois who neatly rounded keeper Nick Bennion before sliding the ball into the vacant net.

Number two came just minutes later when in a similar move, Diak John this time won the ball on halfway before picking out Williams who again threaded a pass into the box, this time picking out Louie Soares who switched the ball to his right before hitting a shot that took a deflection on its way into the Thame net.

Soares had a shot from range saved by Bennion which was soon followed by a run into the area from the left that saw him go down under challenge and a penalty was awarded. Soares himself took responsibility from the spot and sent Bennion the wrong way making it 3-0 on 30 minutes.

Ten minutes later it was four. Joseph-Dubois collected the ball on the left flank and picked out Philip John in the middle who took a touch before smashing the ball past a defenceless Bennion.

The closest the hosts came to troubling Steve Arnold’s goal in the opening half was a free-kick just before the break that was rolled to John Steedman but his effort was well over the crossbar.

Right on the half time whistle it could have been five for Hayes & Yeading as Soares cut inside and hit a shot that Bennion did very well to push away, the rebound falling to Ryan Crockford who saw his shot deflected wide of the target.

The first opening of the second half fell to the home side as the ball was played up to Aaron Rogers, his initial effort was pushed away by Arnold with his follow up being blocked by a timely Mark Bentley interception.

Nas Bashir’s side continued to apply pressure to the Hellenic Leaguers goal, Soares was inches wide with a 20 yard effort before a smart move saw Jamie Hand exchange passes with Crockford whose perfect back-heel return was into Hand’s run, the resultant chip not quite having enough height to beat Bennion.

For the home side Luke Ricketts went close from distance before number five arrived for Hayes & Yeading when Sam Argent collected the ball on the right before miss-cueing his centre which glanced off the near post and into the Thame net bringing a broad grin to the face of the United right-back.

The final chance of the game came with some fourteen minutes to play as the Hayes & Yeading defence struggled to clear their lines and the ball fell to Steve Newell who saw his drive well held by Arnold.

Report by Kevin Watts.





Photos by Ray Peploe.