Hayes & Yeading United and Eastbourne Borough retained their places in the Blue Square Bet South for next season courtesy of a 1-1 draw at Kingfield on a Saturday where the sun finally showed itself in the sky.

The afternoon started with skipper Sam Cox collecting his much deserved Supporters' Player of the Year' trophy from Supporters Club members Mick and Janet Nile. (pictured right)

The United joint managment team made a couple of changes to the side beaten at Sutton, Brandon Hall returned between the sticks in place of Milan Stojsavljevic while Adam Everiss and Tom Collins came into the starting line-up in place of Tom Cadmore and Sam Corcoran.

United started the game in lively fashion, winning a succession of corners in the opening ten minutes, the closest the home side came from one of them though was a far post Calum Butcher header that just cleared the Eastbourne crossbar.

In the 12th minute, a fine flowing move by United was started by Osei Sankofa. The right-back sprayed the ball across the park from right to left where he found Daniel Wishart, the United wide man outpaced Ben Adelsbury in the Sports defence and crossed to the far post where Tom Collins tried to volley home but the ball was slightly too high and his effort went over the top.

A minute later with virtually their first foray into United territory, the Sports opened the scoring. Georges Ehui was given room on the right to advance and his low fired cross ran across the six yard box to a welcoming Jonte Smith who tapped home at the far post.

Two minutes later and with their tails up, the visitors almost doubled their advantage. A long throw was chested neatly down by Charlie Gorman to Jamie Smith who hit a fierce drive from 20 yards that flew inches over Hall's goal.

In the 19th minute parity was restored by the home side. John Goddard found Collins on the right, he nipped easily past Sam Cole before cutting the ball back perfectly to waiting Kudus Oyenuga who rolled home his 19th of the season, unchallenged inside the six yard box.

The last opening of the half was to come on 25 minutes when Adam Everitt chipped the ball in to Collins on the edge of the area, he chested the ball to Oyenuga who took a touch and hit a volley that was inches wide of the Sports goal.

The second half was to be a real midfield tussle with both sides looking to get the winner but also playing with a real cautious edge to their game in the knowledge that defeat could keep them in the relegation fight and this reduced clear cut openings to a real minimum.

The visitors nearly got a lucky second just three minutes into the second half when a deep free-kick from Cole on the right side cleared all and sundry in the middle only to come back into play off the angle of post and crossbar before being played away by the United defence.

Just before the hour mark, Jonte Smith collected the ball on the edge of the United box, turned quickly to throw off the attentions of Butcher but his shot was well blocked by Everitt's challenge and the ball rolled harmlessly to Hall in the United goal.

The only other opening of real note came for the home side six minutes from time when Adam Everiss whipped in a low cross from the left that Sports keeper Danny Potter did well to hold onto at the near post as Collins charged in to try and reach the ball first.

Report by Kevin Watts.




Photos by Ray Peploe.




United Man of the Match: Kudus Oyenuga.




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