United went down to a late penalty against promotion chasing Basingstoke Town at York Road despite the visitors being reduced to just nine men by the time they found the net against a resolute United side who stay seven (effectively eight) points ahead of the final relegation position with just four games remaining.

The game itself started at quite a slow pace with the first 20 minutes just giving up two strikes, from the two left-backs that failed to trouble either ‘keeper, George McLennan firing over for United and former Hayes & Yeading man Tom Bird firing well wide for the visitors.

On the half hour mark a deep Dominic Green centre was met on the volley by Dean Inman but his goalbound effort was well blocked by Nathan Smart and within two minutes the visitors almost took the lead when Lloyd Macklin crossed to Liam Enver-Marum whose close range near post effort was clawed away by Grant Smith in the United goal.

Stoppage time in the first half saw a dipping Louie Soares free-kick clear Smith’s crossbar with the United ‘keeper calmly watching it clear his goal.

Smith had to be alert early in the second half, diving to keep out a low Enver-Marum shot at the foot of the near post and within minutes a surge upfield from Christian Smith saw the defender play the ball forwards to Dominic Green who in turn set it back for Luke Williams but his 25 yard effort curled wide of the upright.

Williams was inches wide on 65 minutes after collecting from a fine build up involving Adam Everitt and Greg Morgan and then two minutes later former Hayes FC man Shaun McAuley leapt for a header with both arms flailing and caught Williams in the face, referee Brook deciding immediately that this was dangerous play and drew a straight red card for the Basingstoke midfielder.

United were quickly to push on against the ten men, Jim Fenlon intercepted a pass and played the ball forwards to Elliot Benyon, he controlled the ball superbly into his own path and hit a dipping shot that again just failed to work Stuart Moore in the Dragons goal, going inches wide of the post.

Just a couple of minutes later Jason Bristow’s side were reduced to nine men when Grant Smith beat Enver-Marum to a through ball and with the former United striker going into a frenzy of protests referee Brook pulled out a straight red card for him also, one assumes for the way he confronted Smith after the United ‘keeper had clearly won the ball.

As United pushed forwards looking to break the deadlock, Moore dealt with a dipping effort from Morgan before a break away from a United attack saw Chris Flood control the ball on the left before spraying a superb pass across the field to where Nathan Smart had charged forwards from full-back, Smith came out towards to on-coming player and having misjudged the flight of the pass saw Smart get to the ball first with the United ‘keeper appearing to clip his heels in the box and referee Brook pointed to the spot. Flood stepped up and sent Smith the wrong way to give the visitors a somewhat improbable lead with just 5 minutes to go.

United substitutes Rhys Murrell-Williamson and Emmanuel Monthe combined on the left side with the former cutting inside and hitting a shot that was deflected wide off the raised heel of a defender and as the game reached stoppage time United were still pushing forwards as you would expect against nine men however the game became very stop start with the opposition bench, on more than one occasion, throwing a second ball onto the pitch just to break up the momentum.

Stoppage time however really only saw one decent opening for United when a Murrell-Williamson corner was partially cleared to Fenlon who fired in a shot from 25 yards that Moore did well to palm down and gather. The best chance however fell to the visitors on the break and they really should have added a second, a throughball to Flood saw him hold off Fenlon before firing wide of the target from inside the United box.

Report by Kevin Watts.

Photos by Ray Peploe.

United Man of the Match: Luke Williams.

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