The Saints were beaten 3-1 tonight by Spar League 2 Champions Rhosgoch.
Goals from Matt Cruise(2) and Joey Price saw them clinch the league title, Kevin Jones netted for the Saints.
Rhosgoch attacked from the off and could have gone ahead on two ocassion in the opening ten minutes but both opportunities were wasted. Tom Weaver changed his sides formation to try and stem the flow of attacks, however, it made no difference and the home side went ahead in the 16th minute, Tom Lewis made a good save from a fierce Sam Lloyd shot from the edge of the box only to see the ball fall to Matt Croose who fired the rebound into the net 0-1.
Just two minutes later player manager Liam Jones went on a run down the right flank with the ball, his inch perfect cross found the leagues top scorer Joey Price at the back post who tapped home from close range 2-0.
In the 28th minute Jack Biggs played the ball out wide to Josh Davies, Davies crossed to the back post where KevinJones was on hand to head in and make it 2-1. Any thoughts of a Saints comeback where short lived, a defensive mix up saw Rhosgoch awarded a corner which Croose buried with a bullet of a header 3-1. Rhosgoch had a couple more efforts on goal but Lewis kept them out Ht 3-1.
The second half saw us have more of the ball but we struggled to get by the Rhosgoch defence which was well marshaled by Sam Lloyd. Both sides had a couple of chances to score, Rob McNamara’s effort was cleared off the line, Phil Davies’ effort went close, up the other end Liam Jones’ free kick struck the post and rolled across the face of the goal but nobody was on hand to finish it, Price had a couple of efforts but couldn’t find the net. Rhos had done enough in the first half and were content to sit on their lead. Ft 3-1
We were pegged back throughout the first half, when did get a break and pulled it back to 2-1 that lasted all of two minutes, in all honesty we could of been 5-1 down at the break, we improved in the second period but to no avail. We were missing our two experienced central midfielders in Preecy and Stu Davies, when you play Rhosgoch away you need all your best players. I thought Adam Finn and Sam Bradley were our best players, they were rather busy tonight, Phil Davies also worked hard all game. For Rhos I was very impressed with Matt Croose in the middle of the park
Congratulations to Rhosgoch Rangers FC on winning the league.
More pictures and a match report later.