Hayle games abandoned

St Austell 1, Hayle 1

(Match abandoned after 45 minutes)

Happy brolly: Referee Gary Cornish takes shelter from the torrential rain under his umbrella after abandoning Saturday's match between St Austell and Hayle. Picture by John Wood.

HAYLE boss Gary Marks had no complaints with the referee's decision to call off the match at half-time with the two title contenders locked together at 1-1 at Poltair Park on Saturday.

"It had to be abandoned as there was so much surface water on the pitch," he said. "But I was pleased that we were at least able to get in 45 minutes of play after our game at Mousehole last week was called off.

"It was also good to see the boys getting to grips with a new system so that we didn't have a repeat of St Austell's win at Trevassack Park three weeks ago. We coped well with everything they had to throw at us early on and then slowly started to control the game."

The home side started well and took the lead after 20 minutes through Martin Giles' looping header from a free kick. Hayle then had a good shout for a penalty turned down when Chris Wolstencroft appeared to be impeded as he tried to latch on to Wayne Quinn's corner.

Soon afterwards Liam Quinn was through one-on-one with the home keeper but dragged his shot wide of the target. But 10 minutes before half-time the visitors deservedly equalised when Wayne Quinn's corner found Matt Shiels on the edge of the box and the Hayle striker fired an unstoppable shot low into the corner of the home net.

Hayle: D Cheal, M Laity, C Russell, W Quinn, T Dann, D Magee, L Quinn, S Stevens, N Pugliese, M Shiels, C Wolstencroft. Subs not used: R Stephens, S Jose.

Man of the match: Wayne Quinn (Hayle).

● Hayle reserves' home game with Helston in the Jolly's Cornwall Combination League was also abandoned shortly after half-time.

The game was goalless at the interval, and with torrential rain, difficult playing conditions and poor light the referee was left with no choice than to call a halt to proceedings.

Earlier, Helston's Jason Adlard was taken to hospital after suffering a cut in a clash of heads.

The visitors found Steve Luke in the Hayle goal in excellent form as he denied Helston's top scorers Neil Southall and Reg Pearson, with he latter also having one cleared off the goal-line.

Sam Charlton went closest to scoring for a young Hayle side, for whom Graham Stiff was also in good form, while Marcus Smith made a promising debut up front.