Now this fixture simply wasn't fair! York having to play both Hayes and Yeading? In fact Hayes & Yeading United was the product of a merger of, you guessed it, Hayes and Yeading in 2007. I had seen both sides in their earlier guise and visited the home grounds of each. The merged club had initially played their home games at Hayes' Church Road ground but had reluctantly left for a supposedly temporary groundshare at Woking's Kingfield before moving back to a redeveloped Warren, the former home of Yeading. Many people had their doubts that the redevelopment would ever take place, hence the reluctance to move and, with Barrett homes quickly demolishing and putting houses on the Church Road ground, we wondered if the end of the road for the merged club was in sight. Attendances at Woking were very poor as it wasn't an easy place for supporters of the merged club to get to via public transport but, five years after vacating Church Road, the new Stadium was ready. Known today as the Skyex Community Stadium, the stadium, whilst being on the site of Yeading's old Warren, is a completely new development and in fact one of the terraces of the old ground is visible behind the goal at the Skyex.
The programme cover star is the Hayes & Yeading goalkeeper Delroy Preddie who fought a largely losing battle with loanee Steve Arnold for the number one jersey that season. Arnold ended up being voted Hayes & Yeading's Supporters Player of the Season, always a sure sign that the goalkeeper seen plenty of action at the wrong end of the field.
The featured game had the feel of "men against boys" and York quickly asserted themselves with a goal in the 14th minute scored via a superb free kick by Jason Walker. Five minutes later and City were 2-up thanks to a low shot from outside the box from John Challinor. Then, just on the stroke of half-time and against the run of play, York let the opposition back into the game as Louie Soares headed home from close range to take his side in at halftime only one goal behind. York manager Gary Mills was clearly unhappy with his team's defensive lapse. The all-important next goal came in the 61st minute and was lashed home, again from outside the box by Paddy McLoughlin. Ashley Chambers then notched York's fourth of the afternoon in the 76th minute to make it game over but there was still time in added time at the end of the match for Hayes & Yeading to grab a second goal via Luke Williams. Of the six goals in the match, four had come from efforts from outside the penalty area.
Season 2011/12 was City's glorious "Wembley Twice" season and the points earned in the featured game helped York to finish in fourth spot, one of the Play-Off positions. Hayes & Yeading finished at the wrong end of the table in 21st place (of 24) and found themselves relegated into the Conference (or National League) South along with Darlington, Bath City and Kettering. Fleetwood Town finished the season as Champions.
CRB Match No. 1846
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