THE wheels certainly appear to have come off Halstead's wagon when they suffered their second home defeat in a row, to a lively Hadleigh on Tuesday, the home side's first blank and their first league defeat of the season.
Manager Jody Brown was without no less than nine of his squad, mostly on the injured list, and gave a debut to Colchester youngster Adam Bailey-Dennis, who acquitted himself well in new surroundings.
Nevertheless they started well enough, and ther
e was plenty of end-to-end play for the first half-hour, although with frequent hold-ups for free kicks before Hadleigh struck twice in six minutes.
Bradley Barber split the home defence for Craig Payne to run through and open their account. This was followed by a long cross from Jake Kingston which found Chris Dennett at the far post to score against his former club.
Halstead resumed with Adam Hampson and Tom Austin for Dave Barefield and Mark Emerson, the latter pair suffering from first half knocks, and although they attacked frequently the visitors dealt with all that came their way.
Inevitably Hadleigh took full advantage and broke away to seal victory on 72 minutes, a surging run by Barber setting up Payne for his second with few defenders around.
Now well in command the visitors brought on their subs for a run out, and although Halstead kept up their attacks forcing four late corners, it was to no avail.
Halstead Town: Wood, Emerson (Austin 46), Rowell, Bailey-Dennis, Devaux, Joslin (Rayner 74), Pollard, Daly, Bryan, Turner, Barefield (Hampson 46). Subs (not used): Streetley, Crumpen.
Hadleigh Utd squad: Whitwell; Kingston, Oakes, Leys, Knott, Crawford, Myhill, Barber, Payne, Fleming, Dennett, L Smith, Porter, Skeggs, Tournay-Godfrey, Rose.
The full article contains 292 words and appears in Suffolk Free Press newspaper.
