A late late goal from Penrhyn Captain Owain James won them the title as the pressure mounted on the home side hearing rivals Knighton Town FC had taken a 2-1 lead.
The Saints traveled with several regulars unavailable but the lads that came up from the reserves can be very proud of their performance.
The game was a cagey affair with ‘Penrhyn’ looking nervous, on several occasions throughout the first half they hit balls over the top which ran through to our keeper Steve Jones.
‘Penrhyn’ did get the ball in the net in the 20th minute but their midfielder was flagged correctly for offside.
We played on the counter attack using Ryan Davies, Darren Horrigan and Adi Lawford’s pace to try and get in behind them, Davie’s especially had them on their toes.
Our best chance came in the 29th minute when Horrigan’s snap shot just went over the bar as the tension mounted on the home side.
‘Penrhyn’ looked very dangerous from set pieces, a Jon Folingo header went close from a corner besides that I felt our two centre backs dealt well with their aerial threat in the first half and Matt James marked Jonathon Evans very well.
Ht 0-0
The second half followed a similar pattern, the home side saw a lot of the ball but we countered well when the opportunity arose, saying that both keepers weren’t called to make many saves. It was a game of very few clear cut chances.
We had to replace Ryan Davies due a knee injury after 55 minutes, youngster Callum Maddy coming on for the striker.
We saw a Brendan Hackett shot go inches wide after a one two with Rob Snedden, Snedden also saw his free kick from 20 yards out cleared to safety.
As the news filtered through that Knighton had taken a 2-1 lead you could feel the tension mount around the ground.
I didn’t think ‘Penrhyn’ were going to score but with just a few minutes left, a free kick from the right was cleared only to be pumped back into the arae and again it was cleared out to the left, the resulting cross was flicked on to Owain James who headed in from 6 yards out. 1-0
‘Penhryn’ ran the clock down until referee Nathan Bennett who had a good game blew up for full time.
A good performance from our young side, I thought Croose and Atkinson were outstanding at centre back and Matt James kept Evans very quiet throughout. We had a game plan and it nearly paid off but credit to and congratulations go to ‘Penrhyncoch’ who left it late but got there in the end.
Team –
Steve Jones, Rory Hackett, Jordan Baker(c), Matt Croose, Jake Atkinson, Rob Snedden, Brendan Hackett, Matt James, Darren Horrigan(Harry Ratcliffe),Ryan Davies (Callum Maddy).
