Hayes & Yeading United’s 16/17 league campaign ended badly as they were beaten comfortably by promotion chasers Merthyr Town at Penydarren Park as four second half goals in 18 minutes condemned United to finish 23rd in the league standings.

With relegation already assured, manager Paul Hughes made two changes to the starting line with Jack Smith and Richie Whittingham coming in for Karl Stevenson and Anthony Edgar respectively.

It was the hosts who started the brightest by applying pressure to the United defence but were unable to open the scoring despite Eliot Richards' effort which didn’t trouble Danny Boness in the United goal.

After a quarter of an hour, Mitchell Weiss’s clever work on the left hand side of the pitch enabled him to come 1v1 against the keeper but with the angle not favourable, he unselfishly passed to Sahr Kabba who was unable to get the ball out of his feet and shoot.

Shortly afterwards, United created another chance with a well worked free kick to Kabba who’s perfect lay off found Weiss but he was unable to hit the target.

With 30 minutes on the clock, there was confusion in the United defence as Boness was adjudged to pick up a back pass from Jack Smith. This resulted in an indirect free kick with Merthyr’s Eliot Richards passing to Scott Barrow but he saw his effort blocked by the solid United wall.

With chances few and far between in the first half, United were unlucky not to go into the break with a lead. David Hutton’s corner was met by a leaping Tom Broadbent, but the captain’s header was brilliantly cleared off the line by Merthyr skipper Ashley Evans.

The second half started in the worst possible way for Paul Hughes’ men as after only 20 seconds of the restart, a mistake in the defence, allowed Corey Jenkins to slot the ball past Danny Boness to make it 1-0.

The second goal for the hosts wasn’t too far away as only 8 minutes later, Eliot Richards doubled the lead after good work from Corey Jenkins on the left and his cross was met by Richards who made no mistake.

This sparked a reaction in the away side, and created a chance for their own. Broadbent’s deflected long range effort was tipped over the crossbar by home 'keeper Oliver Davies.

After the hour mark, Merthyr were pushing for the third goal and this arrived after Richard’s low cross was finished well by Kayne McLaggon.

McLaggon was to wait only 2 minutes to grab his second of the game. A long ball was played from the Merthyr defence and Keyon Reffell did well to flick the ball towards McLaggon who calmly put the ball into the net.

With the damage being done in 18 minutes, the last chance fell to the away side and Broadbent again had a long range effort but was saved well to Oliver Davies's left.

Report by Taz Phalora.

United Man of the Match: Tom Broadbent.