Hayes & Yeading’s pre-season continued apace on Tuesday evening as neighbours Uxbridge, with new man in charge Danny Edwards, took on Paul Hughes’ side on the 3G training pitch at the SKYex.

The Gaffer took the chance to run the rule over more trialists during the game that saw United come from behind late to secure a 4-2 victory.

United started quickly and in just the third minute Dan Spence’s cross from the right side found Elliot Benyon, his 15 yard strike just clearing Carl Dennison’s crossbar. Benyon was denied five minutes later when he looked to move on to a low Toby Little cross only for a Reds defender to toe the ball out for a corner just as the United striker looked certain to pounce.

Ten minutes in Jack Smith was well positioned to hold a shot from the edge of the area from the visitors and within a minute Benyon again went close, this time his volley from another Little cross went just the wrong side of the upright.

On 20 minutes United got the deserved breakthrough, albeit from an unexpected source. Little and James Clark exchanged passes toward the left side with the former crossing to Spence who volleyed home from just inside the box.

Another should have come within a minute when Clark collected a ball that had cleared the Reds defence, he rounded the ‘keeper but his effort was blocked out by a defender as far as Connor Toomey who slid the follow-up the wrong side of the upright.

Just before the half hour mark a fine cross from the right from the visitors Mark Goodman was met in the middle by a flying forward but his header was also the wrong side of the upright from the visitors perspective.

With ten minutes to go in the half, Little nearly hit another, his curling effort with the outside of the boot being pushed away by Dennison at full stretch. Still United pushed for a second, Ahmed Abdulla and Toomey combined to send the ball across to Benyon who saw his diving header fly straight into Dennison’s midriff.

At the other end, one of United’s former nemesis’ from his days at Ashford Town saw Mark Bitmead cut inside from the right and hit a 20 yard drive that Smith did well to push away to safety and the half closed out a minute later with another shot from range by the visitors taking a deflection before nestling with Smith.

United made three changes at the break with the visitors making changes themselves also as you would expect but it was the home side who appeared a little disjointed by the changes and Paul Hughes’ side soon found them selves behind as the Reds crashed home a free-kick on 52 minutes before rifling a shot from the corner of the box across the United trialist ‘keeper to take a 2-1 lead just before the hour mark.

We moved into the final quarter of the game and United’s attack started to show some life with further changes being made by the gaffer. Kunle Otudeko had United’s first decent effort of the half when he cut in from the left and hit a 20 yard shot that went marginally wide of the target.

Minutes later at the other end a neat corner routine found an unmarked Reds player on the corner of the box, this time the United stopper managed to get his fingers to the shot to push it wide keeping the deficit at just one.

United did draw level on 77 minutes when Tobi Adaje broke through the Reds defence and slotted the ball past veteran ‘keeper Paul McCarthy who had come on at the break. The same player was then to give United the lead six minutes later by planting a 20 yard free-kick beyond McCarthy into the top corner of the Reds goal.

Dylan Switters then went close to extending United’s lead on 84 minutes, his driven shot from the corner of the box being just too high, he did however find the net just two minutes later, sweeping home a cross from the left to round off a decent workout for the United players and trialists.

The visitors did have one final chance in the dying embers of the game when a cross from the left appeared to be going in only for the United stopper to tip the ball over the top at full stretch.

Report by Kevin Watts.