UNITED SCRAPE VICTORY IN EVENTFUL CLASH
THERE were three red cards and three penalties in Hayes & Yeading United’s eventful 1-0 win at Beaconsfield Town on Saturday.
After just six minutes, Scott Donnelly’s free-kick was met by Manny Duku, whose first effort was saved by Brendan Hazlett with his rebound blocked by the hands of Town midfielder Jordan Ajanlekoko (see above) with a penalty awarded.
Ajanlekoko was dismissed but Duku’s penalty was saved by Hazlett.
Just 14 seconds into the second half United lost their man advantage and conceded a penalty when captain Tommy Smith was sent off for pulling back Town’s Bahrain Pathan. As Smith had his marching orders all eyes turned to Bajram Pashaj, but his penalty came crashing back off the bar and was cleared.
With 15 minutes to go, United midfielder Ola Olajubu was sent off for a second yellow card.
However Toby Little then surged into the box for nine-man United and was bundled over, with Duku making no mistake with his second penalty as he sent Hazlett the wrong way.
United manager Paul Hughes said: “Any victory away from home against the league leaders is a terrific achievement. The players deserve a huge amount of credit for their performance.
“It was a strange game that was bitty and never really got into a flow. The early sending off contributed to that and we found it difficult to impose our high-tempo game onto Beaconsfield.
“As so often happens with an early red card, we saw some soft decisions go against us for the rest of the half and seconds into the second half, the referee evens the game up by sending Tom Smith off.
“We have developed a steely nature and we would favour a home tie in the play-offs, which makes the game against Barton [on Saturday] an important game to win, because we can earn that home fixture with a third or fourth-place finish.”
United still had a mathematical chance of automatic promotion as runners-up in the Southern League’s East division at the time of going to press.
However they would need to win their final game of the regular season, at home to Barton Rovers on Saturday (ko 3pm), and hope second-placed Beaconsfield lose their remaining fixtures, at home to Dunstable last night, at Egham tomorrow night and away to Marlow on Saturday. On top of that, Hartley Wintney would have to collect no more than one point from last night’s trip to Kempston Rovers and their home game against Aylesbury United on Saturday.