Hayes and Yeading Do The Double

We haven't had much chance to visit Maries for breakfast this season so as we had a leisurely start to the day John W and I decide to begin the day here. The place is very quiet and so we're served nice and quickly - as ever the breakfast is A1.

As we're ahead of schedule so we pop into the Ian Allan bookshop. I potter round the Military section and end up buying an interesting looking book on trench warfare in WW1. Is it only me that finds this sort of thing fascinating?

From here we head over to Paddington where Trevor is waiting for us and we catch a local commuter train and just fifteen minutes later we're in sunny Hayes.

The choice of pubs in this neck of the woods is probably the worst we've had all season and as a result we've highlighted the local Wetherspoons as the only decent place to go.

The Botwell Inn isn't that bad when we get there - it has a decent choice of beers on offer, some of which are leftovers from their recent national festival.

However the one thing that bugs me about Wetherspoons is that if there is a handpump with a pumpclip it doesn't necessarily mean the beer is on as we soon find out. They refuse to turn the pumpclip round as most other pubs do and so your expectations are raised.

The first beer we have is Daleside White Bier which is in the style of a Belgian white and it is quite good - certainy refreshing. It is quite cheap as well of course, certainly by London standards and whilst price is rarely the criteria I use for selecting beers, it is good when you get a decent beer for a modest cost.

Other offerings included Windsor & Eton Windsor Knot and Black IPA , Zeunerts Ale, Greene King Abbot and Courage Directors.

(left) Sam Russell fails to keep Hayes & Yeading from scoring a second goal

Geoff Luke then joined us - and then Howard - whilst John had to go and collect Beverley from the station. For someone who works for London Transport she doesn't have the greatest sense of direction!

From the pub it takes about fifteen minutes to walk to the ground - probably the neatest we've visited this season but nice and homely nonetheless. I sign in at the main gate and am left to my own devices on the pitch - no long list of do's and don't here.

The weather is lovely and it all has the hallmarks of an early season friendly but for Hayes & Yeading this is a must-win fixture.

And judging from their first-half performance, Darlington were looking to do everything in their power to help them.

Hayes were out for a result from the kick-off and were in the lead after 20 mins after Adam Quinn was out-paced on the wing and from the resulting cross the ball was bundled into the Quakers' net.

(right) A smug Geoff with his winnings

No lessons were learnt from this and Hayes could see that Darlo were not up for it - Russell made two decent saves before the lead was doubled after about 30 minutes.

By now the Quakers looked well out of it and qjuite likely to concede further - thankfully we got to half-time without Hayes increasing their lead.

The break saw some joy however as our chum Geoff Luke won the half-time draw and he came back to us flashing a fisful of twenties! Sadly it was to be the highlight of the afternoon.

As the second half kicked off, there was certainly more endeavour from Darlo and some positive work up-front but the game was more or less killed off when Hayes counter-attacked at speed and made it 3-0.

Michael Smith worked himself into a good position but failed to slot in from a slight angle just a few yards from the line with no one to beat. It more or less summed up our day.

His blushes were short-lived though as Darlo surprised us all and scored two goals in quick succession.

The first was an own-goal after a Hayes defender knocked into his own net after the keeper had initially stopped a goal-bound effort from MB-W.

The second was a debut goal from Greg Taylor who was first to react and poked the ball home from a few yards after Miller's header came back off the bar.

(left) Greg Taylor scores his debut goal for Darlo - not enough

Darlo then huffed and puffed but failed to create an equaliser and so Hayes and Yeading earned a vaulable three points in their battle for survival.

Meanwhile we trudged back to the station and headed back to Paddington and from there to the Euston Tap where Geoff was keen to spend his winnings on us. Who we were to refuse?

There were a couple of cracking beers on tonight from the very well regarded Summer Wine Brewery - Odyssey Pale Ale and Nerotype Black IPA - and these helped put the poor performance to bed.

Thank goodness for the healing properties of beer - where would I be without it?