Shared spoils 1-1

7th March 2010

The big home tie with close promotion rivals Llandudno ended all square at 1-1. After the euphoria of last week at Buckley it was back to basics and at the start of the week we would have taken a draw, but with Llandudno missing key players through mid week dismissals, perhaps we could have done better.

Lineup Shannahan, Williams C, Gibbs, Austin, Mitchell, Higham, Williams R, Thomas, Evans, Craven, Gwynedd, Subs, Roberts DG, Roberts K, Gowans, Lloyd

A firm pitch and a bright, sunny footballing day with us kicking down first half and starting brightly enough. We forced three of four corners, which the visitors cleared comfortably but on 17 minutes one fell into a melee of players with Yws Gwynedd reacting quickly to score close in to put us 1 up. This looked like the kick start we needed, but Llandudno defended with passion and physically changed the game to making it narrow and forcing gaps as we played a lot deeper than usual. With both defences looking strong under pressure, the game was played between the 18 yard boxes with both sets of midlfielders scrapping for every ball and neither keeper was unduly troubled, but many fouls went unpunished whilst niggly technical infringements were dealt with harshly, half time was 1-0.

Much the same in the 2nd half Shannahan had a couple of long shots to catch, whilst Whitfield held a stinging 30 yarder from Loggs and Danny Glyn on for Craven half volleyed the only other chance wide. Gowans came on for Rich Higham to try and add width followed by Kev Roberts for Darren Thomas again to try to force the pace; but as the game went deep into injury time it looked like we had hung on for the points, only for almost the final kick of the game from Llandudo manager Grant Montgomery, which took a wicked deflection to elude Shannahan and tie the game at 1-1.

In honesty this was no more than we deserved as Llandudno came with a game plan, stuck to it and certainly on the 2nd half showing, deserved their point.

On a technical point the referee made some strange decisions, didn't take help from his linesmen, one of whom is a far better qualified referee and spoilt the game for both sides.

But as I opened we would have taken this earlier in the week, but having hung on until the 95th minute I thought we had come through on what must be judged as not one of our better performances.

Tied at the top with Flint same points and same goal difference with Buckley and Llandudno 12 &13 points adrift although the latter have 3 ganmes in hand. Our run in looks tough with only 2 home games, no games this week but Flint and Llandudno having 2 each could see Flint going 6 clear and Llandudno making up ground; Flint have to play both of us at some time, but overall it is in our own hands.