Hotspur hope to keep up the good cup form

HOLYHEAD Hotspur will be hoping their dismal second-half-of-the-season league form will diminish when they visit Porthmadog for a Huws Gray Cup quarter-final tonight (Wednesday, 7.30pm), reports Gareth Davies.

Campbell Harrison’s men turned the form book upside down a week ago in knocking out well-fancied Guilsfield in the first round and will want to continue in the same fashion at Port.

The latest league disappointment saw Hotspur beaten 2-1 at Ruthin Town last Saturday.

In an action-packed last five minutes of the first half, Ruthin’s Jordan MacCarter struck the crossbar, then Paul Pritchard superbly saved a penalty from Llyr Morris, who gained revenge with two goals in 60 seconds which effectively won the game for the hosts.

To their credit Hotspur made much more of a match of things in the second half, with even manager Harrison himself coming on as a sub to try to liven things up, and within a minute Hotspur pulled a goal back.

The visitors went close again without the familiar lack of a cutting edge, but so did the hosts and 2-1 was how the game finished.

Both teams started with a number of regulars missing in depleted line-ups and Ruthin began with a good spell of pressure.

At the other end a fine long throw by Reece Brown saw Hotspur’s Robert Llewelyn Jones almost get a touch past home keeper Ryan Goldston.

It looked like a first-half stalemate after MacCarter rattled the bar, then a minute later the same player was brought down in the box and the kick from Morris was kept out by Pritchard, diving to his left and pushing the ball away.

However, the relief was short-lived as league top-scorer Morris struck twice in a minute before the interval.

The visitors pressed at the start of the second half and an Alex Jones header knockdown into the goalmouth was not taken advantage of.

At the other end Morris twice fluffed opportunities for his hat-trick.

Harrison introduced himself and a minute later caused confusion in the home ranks and John Littlemore fired home his 11th goal of the season, but that ended the scoring.