Latest News

Out of the cup 2-1 v Llandudno

18th March 2009

Disappointing night made worse by poor officiating and ex players doing the business.

With Whitfield unavailable through work commitments, Kenny Jones took over between the sticks, plus Rich Higham on the bench with Iwan Jones and Gaf Sharpe.

We set out well getting it out wide left and right to Mike Eddy and Ows Gwynedd, getting behind their defenders and creating chances for Darren and Melv, but all were firing blanks. The game went a bit narrow and with few options the ball was sent high to their defence, which was easy for them with Hogg and Coverley dominating in the air. With little football played by either side in the middle it became a scrappy game, but this turned on 25 minutes when Austin won a ball wide left from Chris Boulton only for the linesman to flag for a free kick as the attacker went down. The set piece into the 6 yard box should have been claimed, but Hogg came in as expected to head the first goal. This sparked our efforts and we created more chances, but our shooting was high, wide and handsome rarely troubling the keeper. On the counter a long ball was played to their left winger standing a clear 10 yards+ offside, but with the linesman floundering 25 yards behind the play he did not flag it. The attacker cut in towards the advancing keeper knocked it past him and out of play, then ran into the turning Kenny and went down with the referee inexplicably awarding a penalty, which another ex player Chris Boulton put away. There was more drama on the stroke of half time, when Hogg came in two footed on Kev Roberts to be given a straight red; 2-0 at half time.

2nd half against 10 men we took the game to them more and got it down and wide again creating yet more chances that went begging. Their keeper did well at 2 or 3 set piece corners, but was fairly comfortable until on 75 minutes Darren Thomas hit a cutter that bobbled in front of him and went in over his body to make it 2-1. We continued to press but again played long high balls that they coped with and mounted several counter attacks that did cause trouble when yet another ex player Jason Sadler came on to hold it up and tie up our defenders.

The game petered out to a 2-1 loss to put us out of the chance of a cup trophy, leaving us to concentrate on the league and hope for a Bala slip up or two.

Ex players that come back to haunt you is one thing, but poor officialdom is not acceptable with two wrong decisions costing us the game; I know these things equal themselves out over the season but it does stick a bit. That said we should have dealt easily with the situations and certainly capitalised on 10 men for half a game

3-0 @ home to Buckley

15th March 2009

A good and deserved 3-0 win against a team that on their day take points off most teams, but a strange, disjointed game marred by injuries.

Starting line up saw Rich Higham back in the middle and Jon Peris stepping down, otherwise unchanged from last week. 

The first ten minutes was all Cefni as we attacked down the field, forcing a number of desperate clearances, saves and set pieces. There was a fair bit of 'off the ball' at these corners, which went unpunished, but finally resulted in a deep cross from a Chris Williams free kick that the keeper punched well clear but collided with Warren Gibbs and laid himself out with what looked like a damged cheekbone. The game was held up for 20+ minutes whilst the ambulance and paramedics attended to him before he went off to hospital. Echoes of a game at Buckley when Richie Evans collided with their keeper and ended up in hospital with a broken leg and never played again - cruel game at times.

The teams came back onto the pitch and resumed, but the mood had changed and we appeared lacklustre and lethargic for a time, letting them come at us and not our usual selves. On 35 minutes a storming run from Rich Higham, a ball inside their defefence and Melv McGuiness beat the offside trap to score past the stranded sub keeper. Straight from the restart a long ball to Darren Thomas and he outpaced  them, the keeper missed it and he was left with a tap in to go 2-0 up and effectively end the game with us going in 2-0 up at half time.

2nd half they stepped up the pressure, knocking it wide and having their big ten minutes without troubling our defence or Whitfield in goal. Mike Edwards came on for Iwan Jones to bring pace down the left, but although our approach play was good they stood firm and the final ball was often missing. Two good chances fell to corners, but one was cleared and the other agonisingly just wide. A smart ball from the back to Kev Roberts, a ball out to Melv who played a quick one to Darren who in turn layed up a shot for Mike Eddy to strike only to see it parried by the keeper, but as his normal industrious self, Kev had followed all the way to run in a slot it home, to put the result beyond doubt at 3-0. A 50/50 challenge ended with one of their defenders being carried off putting them down to 10 men. We brought on Mattew Stoutte and Jon Peris Jones for Darren Thomas and Rich Higham, but with one of his first touches Matt was brought down late and also ended up coming off with ankle damage. Final score 3-0.

A game interrupted many times by injuries, altercations between their bench and the officials and general disruptions, but a well earned 3 points needed to keep us in touch with Bala who disappointingly beat Llandudno 1-0, and ahead of Holyhead who won 2-1 at Denbigh.

3-0 win at home to Penrhyncoch

7th March 2009

After a wet and windy night the game went ahead on a heavy pitch and with the only change being the injured Rich Higham nursing his ankle knock, we carried on in the same style as last week in front of a fair crowd considering the weather.

Kicking up towards the club house we mounted a lot of early attacks though Darren & Melv supported from wide by Ywain and Mike Eddy in a very attacking formation that they struggled to cope with from the off. Playing off the shoulder of the last man Darren took a ball from Jon Peris and despite being pulled back, he hit an early ball that took the keeper by surprise to beat him on the near post with only 6 minutes gone. We continued to press forward creating 2 or 3 chances before a through ball from Kev Roberts on 15 minutes saw Melv chase down the keeper and slide it under him from a very tight angle, credit to him for staying on his feet when he could have gone down for a penalty. We were dominating the game with the defence mopping up any efforts before they troubled Whitfield. Half time came with us 2-0 up.

2nd half continued as before with Darren taking a pass from Ows Gwynedd on 47 minutes to hit his second and our third. The midfield pressed up with the strikers and the defence joined in at set pieces. There were good strikes from Jon Peris Jones and the marauding Geraint Mitchell plus a little cameo from 'drag back' Gibbs as he rolled back time to show us that he is not just a big, physical defender. Full time was still 3-0 and no doubt as in other games a little more clinical finishing would have seen a greater margin. No complaints as this was an all round performance of team work and good football on a difficult surface, with Whitty a spectator for the majority of the match.  Kev Roberts yet again covered every inch of the pitch reminding me of Adie Glo a couple of years ago and it was good see Matthew Stoute make his debut in the last 15 minutes; we look forward to seeing more of him in future games. This report makes it sound a very one sided game which it was, but to take nothing away from our opponents who did battle throughout the game, never gave up, but caught us on a day where it all came together for us.

A word for the officials, Mr Kewley had another good game in charge very ably assisted by Mr Gray and Mr Wallace, they let the game flow and all three contributed to making it a good game to watch, it is always good to report when they do well as we are quick enough to criticise when they get things wrong.

Llandudno losing at our next opponents Buckley was a bonus too, but the other challengers were all involved in cup clashes, for us better to have the points on the board.