It was like lambs to the slaughter at Westleigh Park on Saturday as Havant's rampant display saw Hayes fall to their heaviest defeat in more than a decade.

In a year that started oh so well, in recent weeks it is really hard being a Hayes fan as defeat just seems to follow defeat, and again on Saturday the ball was in our net while we were still in the changing rooms. Just four minutes were on the referees watch when a Micky Warner cross from the right found its way through the defence to Jefferson Louis who managed to somehow squeeze the ball in off Kevin Davies.

The Hawks continued to pile on the pressure, Tony Taggart crossed to a totally unmarked Rocky Baptiste but thankfully his header came back off the frame of the goal and just a minute later the same pair combined again and this time Baptiste slid his effort wide of the post.

With just 15 minutes played Davies kept the deficit to one when he first parried away a Baptiste drive and was then alert enough to get back to his feet and touch Taggarts follow up to safety before Gilbert Nuako cleared for a corner. The kick was flicked on to Louis who saw his overhead effort strike his own player in Richard Pacquette and go flying over the bar.

The Missioners first chance came on 20 minutes, Nuako raced past Warner on the left side before seeing his cross beat home skipper Tom Jordan and fall perfectly for the recalled Kieran Knight only for the striker to slip on the heavy ground having failed to make any sort of decent contact.

Baptiste saw a diving header go just the wrong side of the post before a neat move at the other end involving Knight and Liam Feeney saw the latter cross to Ryan Ashe but he could not direct his header towards goal. Immediately from this the home side strode upfield and doubled their advantage, Pacquette played a neat one-two with Baptiste before moving into the box and firing past an unprotected Davies.

Still the Hawks swooped on our beleaguered defence, Davies did well to save at Louis' feet while Warner fed Pacquette from a free-kick that flew around the wall but wide of the target. Then just a minute before the break the Hayes barrier was breached again, a Luke Byles corner was poorly headed by Nuako and when Baptiste returned the ball to the centre Louis had the simple task of nodding past Davies.

Nobody could have blamed the Hayes contingent for staying in the bar at half time, but they returned to the terraces in their depressed state and although small in numbers they continued to encourage the side, well all bar one anyway! In fact it was the visitors who created the first chance of the half, Nuako fired the ball across to Feeney who got his shot on target only for home keeper Shane Gore to get out of his deckchair and palm the shot away to safety.

Following the lively start, manager Kevin Hill made what could only be seen from the terraces as a mystifying substitution as he replaced both wide players with another centre-back in Jack Haverson and Mark E'Bayer in central midfield making the side look decidedly lopsided, I am sure he had his reasons for the change?

Minutes later Davies again kept the score down as Taggart raced forwards, beating two tackles in the process before seeing his effort pushed away by the Hayes keeper. Sadly, just when it looked like we may "draw" the second half the flood barriers opened again, and again, and again!

On 69 minutes, Baptiste and Taggart were allowed a virtually free run towards goal before finding an unmarked Pacquette on the right he drew a good save from Davies but when the ball was recovered by the wide man he still had time to pick out substitute Brett Poate at the far post where he stroked the ball easily into the Hayes net.

Minutes later it would have been five only for Davies to deny Pacquette at point blank range after Baptiste had again been given a free reign to attack our back-line, sadly the resultant corner was fired into the middle where the massive figure of home skipper Tom Jordan rose to plant number five past Davies.

The misery was complete three minutes from time as a Taggart cross found the Leagues top scorer, and former Missioner, Rocky Baptiste unmarked at the far post and he volleyed home from four yards giving Davies no chance.




Report by Kevin Watts. Photos by Ray Peploe.