Songs of Hayes

I'm fascinated by Hayes and Yeading. How the heck do they keep their heads above water? I went into a little of detail about their attendances in the preview of tomorrow's game, and it's incredible a side that consistently fails to get anyone through the turnstiles can compete like they do. In fact, it's worrying for us to think that they seem to reserve their best form for their games against the bigger teams.

In fact, this feels like a real test for us. We did well last week, but we know we can perform against the stronger teams that look to come at us: even in the bad days when we were busy getting relegated from the Football League we were capable of beating the decent sides. Remember when we beat MK Dons and Darlington in consecutive games under Brian Little?

Hayes will come at us, but at a tempo and with a physicality which will test us. Their record shows that they don't tend to have a problem scoring goals either.

As our defence is our weak point, it'll be interesting to see if we can play with the same sort of energy, intensity and quality we managed last Saturday. I desperately hope we can: if we do, it could be quite a game!