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Staines Town 4
Hayes & Yeading Utd 1
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Staines made it to their fourth Capital League Cup Final courtesy of this entertaining victory over neighbours and league leaders Hayes & Yeading.
It was the first game to be played at Wheatsheaf Park for over 5 weeks, and the Reserves’ first action on home soil since winning their opening game in this competition back in October!
The two line-ups caused some interest, as Martyn Spong’s Swans XI included four men who travelled to Concord the previous night whilst United were spearheaded by ex-Swan Mario Quiassaca, whose younger brother Erivaldo Felix was skippering the home side.
However, two other former Staines men, Huw Johnson and Ben Brown, were missing from the visitors’ squad.
The match was rather closer than the final scoreline might suggest, and indeed for much of the first half it was United who held sway, with Quiassaca in particular going close early on.
Swans
new boy Jerson Dos Santos threatened for the home side who unfortunately lost another debutant, Terence Vancooten (Ashley Lodge’s brother) after a first half clash of heads.
It was Staines who broke the deadlock just 3 mins before the break, Dos Santos breaking on the right and pulling the ball back into the middle, where a defender could only help it on towards Joe Hughes, who made no mistake from 10 yards out.
Staines grew in confidence early in the second half, and moved into a seemingly unassailable lead with further goals on 51 and 58 minutes.
Firstly Carlos Gallego smashed a shot into the top corner from the edge of the 18 yard box – a goal which briefly made the new left-back the Swans reserves’ joint top scorer for the season! Then a flowing move involving most of the team culminated in subs Iven Kumanda (introduced only moments before) and Jeremy Boakye funnelling the ball for Jerson Dos Santos to round off the move.
Quiassaca came close to a quick response for United, but his rangy shot was touched onto the post and out for a corner by the diving Kyle Merson.
With 20 minutes to go, Bajram Pashaj made it 4-0 to the home side, driving home in trademark style from the edge of the penalty area.
But Hayes & Yeading never gave up, and they were rewarded with a deserved goal just 2 mins later, Griffith’s corner picking out Ike Nzuruba, who sweetly volleyed into the top corner with his right foot as the ball dropped perfectly for him.
There were no further goals, but another Griffith corner required some desperate goal-line defending from Staines, and Ofori was well placed only for Merson to save his low shot in the closing stages.
Report with thanks to Steve Parsons @ Staines Town FC.
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Staines Town |
Hayes & Yeading United |
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