In-form United rue missed opportunities

IN-FORM Hayes & Yeading United took a step into the National League South play-offs this week and headed to the top of the divisional form table.

They enjoyed a midweek thrashing of visitors Blackfield & Langley with two goals from Francis Amartey and one apiece from Omar Rowe, Karl Cunningham, James Clark and Hassan Jalloh.

That was followed by a battling 2-2 draw with fellow promotion chasers Taunton Town on Saturday after taking the lead in the first half through goals from Manny Duku and Rowe.

Manager Paul Hughes was a little disappointed following the weekend share of the spoils with Taunton but buoyant having seen his side extend their unbeaten run to six games.

“If you look back at our last six games and said we’ll win five and draw one then you’d take that,” he said. “I think at home with it being such a big game we wanted the win, obviously a draw is good for them on their travels so they are happy. It wasn’t a defensive game though and they took the game to us. It was end to end with both sides trying to win it, we both had chances and it could have gone either way but we are disappointed we didn’t get a win.

“I think we had enough chances to get a third goal but they could argue the same, so overall [I’m] disappointed but a point is a point.

“Every game in this league is tough but with more play-off contenders midweek it means we have to recover quickly, both physically and mentally. We are on a good run and we know that when we apply ourselves and work as hard as we have been doing we are a match for anyone. We’re strong, we’re pacy up top, we’ve got lots of different assets.

“You look at that top two today and midfield four and they can all score, they’ve all got lots of goals in them, so that’s always nice going into games knowing that you’ve got that firepower.”

He added: “Poole away on Saturday – we know how tough that will be too. They’ve still got games in hand and will still fancy making the play-offs, and we of course put them out in the FA Cup down there, so they will definitely be up for it.

“Psychologically though, we know we’ve beaten them this season and beaten them there too.”