Fightback gives 10-man Hayes some hope

Boss Gary Haylock believes Hayes & Yeading United have given themselves a glimmer of hope of reaching next week's Blue Square South play-off final.

United's ambition of reaching the Blue Square Premier League looked in tatters after a disastrous first half in Tuesday night's clash with Eastleigh at Church Road.

But a spirited second half fightback with 10 men saw them partly claw back a 3-0 deficit which suggests Saturday's return match at the Silverlake Stadium will be no foregone conclusion.

“I think the final result gives us a chance now," Haylock told the Gazette."We've got an opportunity and they will be a bit nervous now having let us back in.

“We will approach it as though we are 2-0 down because that sounds a lot better than 4-2 and we scored three goals at their place earlier in the season so if we can do that again and keep a clean sheet, we can still go through.”

United's first half travails made a mockery of the 15-match unbeaten run they were protecting going into the match.

Hampshire side Eastleigh, who won 1-0 at Church Road In December, took just five minutes to have United on the back foot – Tony Taggart scoring with a looping header over keeper Aaron Howe.

And things went from bad to worse, even though Howe then saved a Taggart penalty given for a handball by Matt Ruby.

First Brett Williams made it 2-0 on 26 minutes after capitalising on a weak clearance by Gary MacDonald, then Haylock's woes multiplied with the sending off of striker Josh Scott following a spat with Eastleigh's Ashley Carew.

Haylock must have been praying for the interval to reorganise his shell-shocked side, but there was yet more pain on the way when Anthony Riviere netted with a header in first half stoppage time.

And when an own goal from James Mulley five minutes after the interval put the Spitfires 4-0 up, the game looked up.

But Will Henry's 72^nd minute penalty breathed life into United and Ruby's last minute tap-in after Scott Fitzgerald had headed on a Hendry corner, has arguably done just enough to cast doubt on the outcome.

“We made individual errors,” Haylock said. “It was a big game and a lot of our players haven't experienced something like that before. We also we didn't react well to the physical pressure they put us under and made the sort of mistakes we haven't been making this season.

“I'd rather not tell you what I said at half-time because the dressing room is sacred but I was pleased with how we played after that. We are not a bad team and we didn't become a bad team in 45 minutes.

“We've also practised playing with 10 men against 11 so I knew we could still do well and I always thought we'd get stronger as the game wore on. A lot of decisions went their way, but if our luck turns in the second leg, who knows what might happen.”

At stake in the weekend trip to Eastleigh is a final showdown either at home to Chelmsford City or, more likely, away to Hampton & Richmond Borough next Thursday.Hampton won their first leg tie 3-1 away.

United, who finished two points below Eastleigh in the Blue Square South, will remember that they recorded a decent 3-3 draw away to their play-off opponents in October. But they will need to do even better this time around.