Truro City
Matches
Sun 22 Nov 2015  ·  National League South
Hayes & Yeading Utd
H (27'), (37')
2
2
Truro City Football Club
Truro City
L Afful (76'), J Ash (90')

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Truro City Football Club28 Mar - 17:39
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Truro City head off up the M5 and M4 for Sunday’s encounter with Hayes & Yeading United in fine form. A 2-0 win over Basingstoke Town on Tuesday takes the White Tigers’ run of league games without loss to 10 and lifts the club to fifth place in the National League South.

Things were a little different back in August when the two clubs met at Treyew Road in the second game of the season. Truro City were still finding their feet in the higher division and on this occasion Hayes & Yeading took all the points thanks to two goals without reply from Ismael Ehui. This despite the fact that the Middlesex club played the last 20 minutes with 10 men.

In the subsequent three months, the clubs’ fortunes have diverged somewhat. While Truro find themselves in the National League South play-off places for the first time in their history, Hayes & Yeading are 10 points and 12 places behind in 17th position.

After a poor run of form, events came to a head at the end of September. Hayes & Yeading’s exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Southern League Premier side Poole Town came after a run of five league games which had yielded just two points. Manager Tristan Lewis stood down (though he remains as Director of Football) to be replaced by Gary Haylock, something of a legend at the club.

Haylock was in charge of Yeading FC when the club merged with Hayes FC in 2007. He took the new entity into the Conference Premier two years later and remained in charge until 2011. Now he’s back, and the new manager is going to be a busy (and well-travelled) man. Haylock has been working with former team mate Paul Tisdale as First Team coach at Exeter City and, somewhat unusually, will continue his involvement with the Devon club alongside his role at Hayes.

Hayes and Yeading’s form improved immediately after the new manager’s arrival, with two goaless draws and away wins at Concord Rangers and Sutton. However the wheels came off somewhat last weekend with a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Chelmsford (albeit Hayes & Yeading were only one goal down before the 38th minute dismissal of Devante McKain opened the floodgates).

One of Tristan Lewis’ last acts as manager was to get rid of no less than seven players (including former Truro City man, Ben Gerring) and Haylock has said that his priority now is to end the ‘revolving’ door policy at the club which saw large movements of personnel under his predecessors.

Since his arrival, Haylock has made just two signings, both with an eye to firming up the back line. Defender Adam Bygrave arrived from Farnborough. The 26 year old former Reading trainee played under Haylock in his last season at Hayes and Yeading in 2011. And 25 year old centre-back Justin Clayton, who started his career at Southend United, was signed from Southern Division One Central side, Burnham.

In terms of players to watch at the other end of the pitch, it’s worth recalling that in the wake of the August defeat, manager Steve Tully identified Hayes & Yeading centre-forwards Ismail Ehui and Elliot Benyon as the players who had caused most difficulty for Truro’s defence. Ehui is the club's leading scorer this season with five in all competitions while Benyon has found the back of the net four times.

So Sunday’s clash is important for both clubs. For Truro, the imperative is to keep the recent momentum going, with the only cloud on the horizon being the absence through suspension of one of this year’s stand-out players, Arran Pugh. For Hayes & Yeading, the pressure will be on to bounce back from last weekend’s Chelmsford’s debacle. Let’s leave the final word to the Hayes and Yeading manager:

“It’s good to get back on the horse. There will be a reaction. I wasn’t here but we’ve already been down to Truro and beaten them 2-0 this season. It’s better than us having to go all that way down there, but a game is a game and we need a response. If you get beaten 5-0 at home you would expect some changes.”

By Colin Bradbury

York Road

York Road

York Road
Maidenhead
Windsor and Maidenhead
SL6 1SQ

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Match details

Match date

Sun 22 Nov 2015

Kickoff

15:00

Location

Attendance

293

Competition

National League South
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Kit Supplier 2021/22 - MJM Sports
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor - Man Down Cornwall
Shirt sponsor - Truro and Penwith College
Kit Sponsor 2021/22 - Errea Sport
Club Sponsor - Tribute
Programme Producers - Footie Print & Digital