Cymru Alliance side Rhayader Town showed their quality last night by knocking the Saints out of the Presteigne Otway cup 6 goals to 1. Possession wise there wasn’t a great deal to choose between the two sides especially in the second half but the higher graded were very sharp infront of goal in the first half where they led at the break 0-4.
Sam Bradley pulled a goal back for the homeside after 50 minutes when his shot beat the diving Ian Havard, the visitors keeper then pulled off an excellent save to deny Ben Bevan when he was in on goal, the Saints had their best spell of the game in the opening 15 minutes of the second half where they had the visitors on the back foot time and time again.
Rhayader got back on top around the 65 minute mark and scored their fifth goal in the 68th minute, a 35 yard wonder goal by Joey Price late on ended the nights scoring. For the record Rhayader’s other scorers were Oliver Richards(2), Richie Powell(1), Robbie Steele(1) and Darren Murphy(1).
Manager Sean Hackett was not happy with the first half performance from the Saints but pleased how they came back after the break and made a bit of a contest of the game, he was very complimentry of the visitors who he thought played the game the right way, quick, smart and hard working. Sean praised the Saints front two for their work rate(Bevan and Wisniewski) but thought his Captain(Preecy) was the Saints best player who he described as being immense last night.
Best wishes to Dylan Mchphee who had to leave the field of play last night with what looked like a serious knee injury.