The Saints are through to the next round of The Central Wales Cup winning 0-8 at Penybont United FC.
Goalscorers were Tom James(3), Steve Morgan, Jack Biggs, Adi Lawford, Ryan Davies and Matty Tong.
We went ahead in the 5th minute, a Brendan Hackett corner was headed in from 12 yards out by midfielder Jack Biggs 0-1.In those opening minutes the ball was in the back of the net on two more occassions but both times the linesman flagged for offside. The Saints were now dominating proceedings, however, new signing Steve Jones had to be off his line quick to close down a Penybont striker after Hackett misplaced a pass in midfield, the home team player put his effort wide after the angle was narrowed by Jones.
Ryan Davies made it 0-2 on 25 minutes after cutting in from the left. We missed several more chances on the lead up to half-time, however, on 45 minutes it was 0-3 after an excellent build up involving several players resulted in full back Tom James netting from 8 yards out. Ht 0-3.
The second half saw a similar pattern of play, it wasn’t long before James got his second after over lapping on the left and getting in the box to score. 0-4. Next on the score sheet was the returning Adi Lawford who has missed a lot of football through injury, Lawford cut in from the right and shot with his left foot into the bottom corner making it 0-5.
Penybont were trying to counter attack but captain Jordon Baker, Will Goodwin and Matt Croose were on their game today and were letting nothing past, keeper Jones didn’t have a lot to do but what he did have he handled well.
Top scorer Steve Morgan got the ball in the back of the net on 75 minutes but was flagged for offside, it didn’t take him long to get on the score sheet after that and put us 0-6 up.
A Hackett through ball found 16 year old Matty Tong, just as the youngster was about to shoot in the area after outpacing his marker a Penybont defender hacked him down, the referee didn’t hesitate in pointing to the spot. Tom James scored with ease for his hat-trick goal. o-7
James then repaid Tong with a lovely ball from the left which the Saints striker took around the keeper and rolled the ball into the back of the net to make the final score 0-8.
It was good to be back playing after a long lay off, it was a decent performance to blow the cobwebs off and good to get into the next round of the cup. We are having a good season at the is level, mid table in the league and we are still in 4 cups.
I thought we played well today considering the conditions, Brendan was everywhere, Tom scored a good hat-trick but my man of the match was Matt James who broke up everything in midfield, he was very disciplined when it would of been easy to bomb forward trying to grab a goal. Penybont pick a man of the match for the away side and they also chose him.
In the next round we will play Aberystwyth Uni after they won 3-1 yesterday against Montgomery Town FC.
A quick mention for the referee who I thought was excellent yesterday.
Team –
Steve Jones, Will Goodwin(Jake Atkinson), Matt Croose, Jordan Baker(c), Tom James, Matt James, Jack Biggs(Matty Tong), Brendan Hackett, Ryan Davies, Adi Lawford(Danial Elvestad),
Match report and photos to follow.