The Saints progressed to the 4th round of the Emrys Morgan Cup after a narrow 2-1 win against league rivals Llandrindod Wells.
This was a game of very few chances with defences being on top throughout, Michael Watson and Shaun Nicholls of Llandod played extremly well against Kevin Jones and Josh Wisniewski of the Saints. It took 20 minutes for the 1st chance after Phil Davies whipped in a ball for Jones whose shot was saved by the Llandod keeper, Wisniewski pounced on the loose ball but again the combination of keeper Wright and a defender blocked what looked like the opener, the ball going out for a corner. Llandod looked good on the break with the pacey Bishop having to be well marshalled by Havard and Preece. On 31 minutes the breakthrough came when midfielder Joe Mayglothling was released by brother Sam, Joe crossed into the box for Jones, Llandod defender Hugh Lewis stretched to stop it going to the Saints striker but only managed to slice the ball into his own net. Llandod were level 6 minutes later after the Saints had a free kick cleared, the pacey Bishop picked the ball up on the half way line and sprinted clear of the Saints defence and fired his shot past Kirkham to make it 1-1 at the break ht 1-1.
The second half was much the same with neither side giving much away,though Kirkham at be at his very best on the hour mark when Bishop was again through one on one but this time Kirks pulled off a brilliant save to keep the scores level. Manager Wisniewski brought on Ben Bevan who injected some much needed pace into the Saints attack, from a long Bevan throw a big shout went up for a penalty when Watson had his hands around Jones neck pulling him down but the incident wasn’t spotted by the unsighted referee Caufield(who was excellent throughout). On 70 minutes the Saints did get a penalty when the hard working Wisniewski turned and ran at the Llandod defence and was brought down by two defenders just has he was about to pull the trigger, Caufield pointed straight to the spot, Wisniewski got up and buried the spot kick with confidence to make it 2-1. The Saints then controlled the ball for the remainder of the game but never looked like scoring nor did Llandod when they did manage the odd break. ft 2-1.
In my opinion this was agame which could of gone either way, we shaded the possession but chances were very limited to both sides, Llandod showed they are a very good side and that it was no fluke when they beat us at their place earlier in the season.
Man of the match is a tough one, Sam Powell worked hard in midfield as did Wiz up front, the whole of the defence looked good, but I’m going to give it to Kirks for that one save when it was 1-1, a fantastic save under pressure which kept us in the cup.
Team- B.Kirkham, R.Jones(J.Davies), M.Havard, C.Preece(c), P.Davies, J.Mayglothling(B.Bevan), S.Powell, S.Mayglothling, G.Williams, K.Jones(J.Daw), J.Wisniewski.