The selection of players on this page has a distinctly modern feel to it.  But we start with a promising player from the mid-1930s.

J Brunton was an inside-forward cum wing-half, who joined Hayes at the start of 1934-5.  He was a clever ball player, who was selected for the Athenian League side against the RAF in February 1935. He started the 1935-6 season as first-choice inside-right, but drifted off to Hayesco in the London League. He made a total of 21 appearances, scoring two goals.

Martin Buglione came to Hayes in 1998 with a reputation for goal-scoring. Previously he had played for Tonbridge, Welling, Sittingbourne, Ashford Town, Dartford, Enfield, Boreham Wood, Walthamstow Avenue, Dagenham and St Johnstone in the Scottish League. He had been pursued by manager Terry Brown for several seasons and, when he reached the end of his contract with Margate in the Southern League, Brown acted swiftly. The problem was that, like Chris Boothe before him, he seemed to have left his scoring prowess behind him – in 8+11 games he managed only one goal, at Stevenage. From Hayes he went to Hampton, whom he saved from relegation, Purfleet and Broxbourne Borough where he was last heard of as youth manager.

In Hayes’ last season in the Conference, it was obvious to everyone except management that Bertrand Bossu was not yet up to the rigours of the competition.  Immediately after the cup-tie with Wycombe Wanderers, Hayes was offered the services on loan of a goalkeeper, Nikki Bull, by QPR, but turned it down.  As soon as Terry Brown left for Aldershot, stand-in Willy Wordsworth snapped up the offer. Bull, together with another loanee, Steve Daly from Slough, brought an organisation to the defence and more clean sheets were achieved in seven games than in the preceding 35 – but it was too late.  At the end of the season, Bull was released by QPR and joined Aldershot, where he became Player of the Year for 2002-3.  If only…

A similar sentiment surrounds the story of Dave Bullock.  He joined Hayes as a centre-half after two seasons with Wealdstone in October 1970. During his time at Church Road he was used in midfield as well as defensive positions. In February 1971 he was selected by the London FA for its annual fixture with Birmingham. During the season he moved house to the Wycombe area. When Hayes were elected to the Isthmian League in 1971, he was approached illegally to sign for the Wanderers, although, as he admitted, he was perfectly happy playing for Hayes and would not have joined Wycombe if an approach had not been made. Hayes reported the matter to the FA, but the FA effectively did nothing – yet another example of the FA making rules which they were inept at keeping. At the time, Bullock had made 63 appearances for Hayes, scoring nine goals. He went on to make almost 150 appearances for Wycombe, before returning to Hayes in February 1977, playing mainly at left-back. Over the next 15 months he made a further 42+7 appearances.

At the start of Hayes’ first campaign in the Conference, regular centre-half Andy Cox was suffering from a long-term knee injury, so Nathan Bunce was bought from Yeading for £2,000.  At the time it was thought that Terry Brown had bought the wrong player, as Enfield and then Yeovil swooped for Steve McGrath.  But Bunce stepped into the breach manfully and, for the next four seasons, held down a more or less regular place at the heart of the defence, culminating in selection as club captain in his last full season. He was an uncompromising defender – hard to beat in the air and strong on the ground; as his career progressed he visibly grew in stature through weight-training, but with a tendency to be slow on the turn.  He could also be relied on to turn up with some headed goals from set pieces. Like all Hayes club captains at the time, at the end of the season he left to join Stevenage in 2000, but Paul Fairclough’s image of him as a leader of men obviously faltered, and he was loaned back to Hayes in time for the last month of the 2000-1 season, when he played a large part in prolonging Hayes’ presence in the Conference by a season, scoring the first goal at Hednesford in the last match of the season with a hallmark header.  At the end of the season, he joined Farnborough and managed to play in their cup-tie at Highbury before following manager Graham Westley back to Stevenage. In the summer of 2004 he joined Havant & Waterlooville before moving to Maidenhead United. At Hayes he made 161+18 appearances, scoring 15 goals.

Another player with Hertfordshire connections was Neil Bunker, who could play at both centre-half and centre-forward. He had started with Hemel Hempstead and Chesham (1969-70), then spent the end of 1970-1 with Wealdstone, before spending six years at Hitchin Town, where he scored around 100 goals, interrupted only by a short spell at Bishop's Stortford, when he came to Hayes via Boreham Wood in September 1977 at the age of 27. 6ft tall and dominating, he started with Hayes as a centre-forward, but then dropped back into defence, as the need demanded. He was a sales manager in the printing industry and commuted from Newport Pagnell. He left in summer 1979, having made 68+5 appearances and scored 7 goals.

Lastly, the poetic Robbie Burns was a slim, left-sided forward, who came from the Dulwich area. During his time at Church Road he made 89+3 appearances, scoring 33 goals, and represented Middlesex on two occasions. He eventually resigned from Hayes in January 1970 because he attended evening classes in Edgware twice per week and could not get to training.

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