Hughes ‘frustrated’ at West Country defeat

PAUL HUGHES admitted he was “frustrated” after his Hayes and Yeading United side suffered another defeat in the West Country, losing 2-1 at a welldrilled Taunton Town.

Hayes deserved something from the game and Hughes was keen to take the positives, even though he was disappointed a ‘goal’ from James Clark was ruled out for offside when he thought it was perfectly legitimate.

“It was a frustrating loss for us because we felt we applied enough pressure on Taunton to at least walk away with a point, if not all three.

“I was impressed with the way we controlled large parts of the game away from home against a well-fancied playoff contender. They had a crowd of more than 700 behind them and the first 15 minutes we silenced them because we simply took charge of the ball and created one or two good openings. We should’ve taken the lead through James Clark early in the first half but somehow he was deemed to be offside. When decisions like that go against you it can make it hard for you to get a positive result.

“To give credit to Taunton, they eventually got their foothold in the first half and certainly gave us a few problems as they got in behind us on a couple of occasions and probably should’ve made one of those chances count.

“To go in at half-time one down was not the end of the world for us. We felt we could get something if we could apply the same energy as we did in the first half and keep moving that ball quickly. When we did that, we moved them around a lot, which created openings for us. My only criticism of us was that I felt the second goal was a poor one to concede. We must put more pressure on their player who crossed the ball and our marking was nonexistent, which enabled the lad to head home comfortably.”

Overall he was pleased with the performance and added: “One thing I will say about our group is that we are resilient and we certainly go the full 95 minutes.

“You could sense we were going to score with the amount of possession we had in the second half and the pressure we were putting them under. The penalty arose due to that pressure we applied and, once converted, I felt we had the momentum to go on and get an equaliser. It didn’t quite happen but Taunton were certainly backs against the walls for the last 20 minutes and that’s a credit to our players’ belief and diligence. I thought Taunton dug deep and sometimes stubborn defending can win you games and I think this was an example of that. They defended resolutely and got the win due to that stubbornness.

“If we keep pressurising teams the way we do then I can see us stringing some very positive results together.”

This weekend United entertain Poole Town in the fourth and final qualifying round of the FA Cup at home before, subject to the need for a replay, they travel to Swindon Supermarine on Tuesday October 22.