Forget canceling the half time team talks, lets just cancel the second half altogether, although Hayes seem to have done that already after yet another pathetic second half showing, this time at Histon. Having more than matched the League leaders throughout the first 45 minutes, once again the Missioners capitulated at the start of the second half by conceding within five minutes of the restart, twice this time!

Things started badly yet again as we lost a player in the warm up for the third time in 2007, Will Hendry being replaced in the starting line-up by Ryan Ashe. The game opened at quite an even pace, Adrian Cambridge saw an on target volley blocked by his own man and minutes later our own Liam Feeney fizzed a cross through the six yard box that John Munday met with his thigh only for the ball to loop wide od the target.

Play continued to flow from end to end as the Missioners gave as good as they received, Erkan Okay crossed to Antonio Murray who rose at the far post but headed over and at the other end a free-kick into the Histon box was only partially cleared to Feeney but his deflected shot was cleared on its way to goal by Okay who was lurking in the six yard box behind his keeper.

Ashe then went close with a volley after controlling the ball on his chest before a back post Peter Collins header from a Feeney corner looped over Key only for Cambridge to head off the line.

Having survived a couple of scares, the Stutes began to assert themselves on the game, John Kennedy and Murray combined well but the latter shot wide from an angle before a 25 yard drive by Okay forced Davies to be sharp at the foot of his post on a skiddy surface. The home side almost had a fortunate break on 28 minutes when mis-hit attempts by both Cambridge and Jamie Barker fell nicely into the path of Kennedy whose drive was well saved by Davies.

With less than ten minutes to the break and failure to clear and some poor marking saw the Stutes edge ahead. Having twice failed to clear our lines, Barker collected the ball and exchanged passes with Okay on the left before crossing into the middle where Gilbert Nuako appeared to freeze, leaving Nightingale to nip in and strike the ball past Davies and into the net off the far post.

Now you would expect the side to come out in the second half with the managers words "keep it tight" ringing in their ears after recent performances, obviously they are either deaf or the manager is mute because once again we conceded within five minutes of the restart.

Less than three minutes were on the referees watch when Cambridge was allowed to burst into the box only to be caught from behind by Peter Collins for which referee McCaul pointed to the spot. Nightingale stepped up and sent Davies the wrong way and double the Stutes advantage. It didn't stop there sadly, just two minutes later the home side scored again, a corner from the left was headed clear only to fall perfectly to Kennedy who placed an unstoppable volley into the top corner of Davies' net - game over.

To the dismay of the ever dwindling Hayes support this was not the end, having endured a thrashing at havant just weeks earlier, this was soon to become the same scenario. The fourth was not long coming, just five minutes in fact, a long Cambridge throw from the left saw yet more sloppy defending which allowed Murray the easiest of tap in's at the far post.

With the game over as a contest with less than an hour played we did create a couple of half chances, Nuako and Feeney combined on the left but the latter, who had outpaced his marker, fired wide closely followed by Sean Ridgway setting up Michael Bartley but Roscoe Hipperson was well placed to block his shot.

The 72nd minute saw the home side net for the fifth time in just over 30 minutes, Nightingale was given time to have a beer and a burger before being allowed to plant a perfect shot, unchallenged, into the top corner of Davies net from all of 25 yards to complete his hat-trick.

Minutes later the Hayes contingent almost had something to cheer about only for a spoilsport assistant to raise his flag and deny Feeney a goal as he was adjudged offside, they say decisions change games, this one didn't !!

We also had a strangled call for a penalty minutes from time as substitute Josh Scott held off four defenders before hitting the deck but no decision was forthcoming.


Report by Kevin Watts.

Photos by Ray Peploe.