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Stratford Town 0
Hayes & Yeading Utd 0
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United travelled up to Shakespeare country to take on Stratford Town in our final pre-Christmas Southern Premier outing and came back with a hard earned point courtesy of a first clean sheet in the League in 2 months.
The game itself took a while to get going with the home side holding a lot of early possession without really troubling Danny Boness in the United goal. The first opening fell to United as a Niall Cooper goal-kick was headed straight back towards the Stratford goal, Mitchell Weiss flicked on past James Fry but his low shot was held by Cooper. Within a minute Cooper was again in the way as a Ryan Hope free-kick was headed back in to the middle at the far post by Darren Locke, Weiss’s header being held by the home stopper.
Play soon switched ends and Boness was well placed to grasp a Ben Stephens volley as he latched on to a Will Grocott centre. A smart move by the home side just after half hour mark saw a neat piece of inter-play on the left between Stephens, Edwin Ahenkorah and Kieren Westwood, the latter firing low across the six yard box to where United skipper Tom Broadbent did well to get the ball clear, it was however soon back in the middle with Boness saving low from Mike Taylor.
United were soon on the offensive again with another Hope free-kick causing problems, this time the low driven kick was trapped by Broadbent who saw his shot on the turn go just over Cooper’s crossbar. The final chances of the first half however fell to the home side. A corner from the left was met by Fry but thankfully defelcted straight into Boness’s midriff, the United was needed soon after as Taylor got ahead of Brian Evans in a foot race, the United ‘keeper moving quickly off his line to block at the strikers feet while having the speed of thought to pounce on the loose ball as Westwood closed in.
Both sides’ were to have chances in the second half with both number 1’s making excellent stops to keep the scoresheet blank.
Boness was first into action as Stephens and Ahenkorah combined on the right of the United box, the latter hitting a low drive that Boness handled well low down. Play immediately moved to the other end as Weiss ran at the home defence, swerved past Liam Francis and sent the ball past the diving Cooper only for Stratford skipper Fry to slide the ball off the line.
Taylor ws just wide with a header for the hosts and at the midway point in the half the home side worked the ball short from a corner on the right with Daniel Summerfield picking out Taylor 6 yards from goal, his header being superbly tipped over by Boness. Within seconds it was his opposite number that kept the scoresheet blank. Weiss beat his marker to the ball, played it inside to substitute Dylan Kearney who returned the ball to Weiss inside the box on the left, his shot across Cooper being pushed away at full stretch for a corner. Said corner taken by Mahlondo Martin was met by Broadbent but not with enough power to trouble Cooper.
Still chances came at both ends as the fog started to roll in. Grocutt fired inches wide from the edge of the box after being fed by Stephens before Ahenkorah broke in to the United box on the left, his low drive for the near post being pushed behind by a well positioned Boness. Another great opening for United came and went in the 78th minute when another substitute, Cole Brown, left Summerfield on his backside and cut into the box on the left only for his shot across the face of Cooper to go agonisingly the wrong side of the post.
Juts three minutes remained and the home side nearly took all three points as Summerfield’s cross from the right found Stephens in front of goal but despite the striker controlling the ball he was denied a shot at goal by a superb Evans sliding block and the game was played on with a point apiece probably just about the fair result.
Report by Kevin Watts.
United Man of the Match: Tom Broadbent.
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Stratford Town |
Hayes & Yeading United |
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Darren Locke 
