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Saints win in cup.

The Saints beat Dyffryn Banw 6-4 to progress in the Emrys Morgan Cup.

A fantastic team performance saw The Saints through in what turned out to be a game of two halves. A very wet pitch that cut up badly in the 2nd half made conditions very testing. This wasn’t helped by the strong wind blowing diagonally down the pitch.

Hay playing with the wind, started very brightly and were 2 up within 5 minutes through Tom Weaver and Rob Snedden. Weavs finished well from 6 yards for the opener and Snedz hit a great 20 yard free kick in to the top corner for the second. The Saints played some good football in the first half and after Gav Williams going close with a 20 yarder it was rewarded when Olly Cooke had a chance from 10 yards and finished smartly. Cooke was again involved in the 4th goal along with Gav Williams and Weavs who laid the ball on for Mike Ward to finish into the bottom corner. Weavs then went on a run after picking up the ball 30 yards out on the left he cut in and scored with a low right foot shot across the keeper. Little had been seen of the home side but they had created a few problems with there two lively strikers getting around the back. The back four and keeper Ian Jones had  held firm though until late on when the ref(or should we call him Alan as the home side did throughout the game) gave what seemed a soft penalty. Eioss nearly kept it out but it just crept over the line. H.T 5-1 to Hay.

Turning around for the 2nd half ,which was delayed for a while as Banw’s no 9 was carried off with a bad looking injury after a solid challenge from Preecy, The Saints knew that it was going to be a different story – and so it proved. Within 5 minutes they had scored a second and Hay knew that this was going to be a difficult half. Banw were now very direct and causing problems, in particular the sub striker who was quick. Increasing pressure told with The Saints finding it difficult to build attacks the way they had in the first half. They did at this stage however have a couple of chances to kill the game off . Snedz shot  had beaten the keeper but didnt have the power to go over the line and a defender cleared easily. Wardy was also put clear on the right side of the box however a covering defender forced him to shoot near post instead of across the keeper.

These missed chances made the remaining part of the game difficult and it was definitely squeaky bum time. Banw scored a further two goals to make the score 5-4 however with 5 minutes to go The Saints had another break with Wardy again being released on the right side of the area and this time he made no mistake hitting his shot across the keeper and in to the far corner. Still the drama continued and Eioss made a great save at the far post from a downward header. From the resulting corner Hay found it difficult to clear and Weavs bought a Banw player down for a cast iron penalty. The home side no 8 stepped up to take the penalty and put it wide of the right hand post. There was little time to go now and thankfully The Saints held out for a deserved win 6-4 – phew what a game.

This was a great team performance . They showed fantastic fighting spirit in the 2nd half when it would have been easy to let the home side over run them. All 12 who travelled deserve to be made man of the match today as without any one of them The Saints would not have got this result and be progressing to the Quarter Finals. The draw is being made Thursday night at the Central Wales meeting.

Team : Ian Jones, Gareth Jenkins, Stu Davies, Chris Preece, Phil Davies, Mike Ward, Tom Weaver, Jamie Howard,(Bryan Kirkham), Gavin Williams, Olly Cooke, Rob Snedden.

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