Late Breese winner seals Cofis’ first win
JAMIE Breese fired a late winner to give Caernarfon Town a 3-2 win at Airbus and seal their first Cymru Premier League victory of the season.
The hosts gave an excellent account of themselves and had high hopes of getting their first points of the campaign after Ryan Edwards had put them ahead in the 71st minute.
However, a wonder strike by Darren Thomas set up a thrilling finale and it was Breese who delivered the sucker punch.
There was an unfamiliar look to the Caernarfon side as Sean Eardley made a number of changes to his starting line-up and it’s true to say that it took a while for them to get into their stride.
Unfortunately, by the time they did, they were already a goal down after Andy Owens took full advantage of an underhit backpass from Mike Pearson to slot the ball past Ramsay in the eighth minute.
It took the Cofis 23 minutes to fashion a first opportunity as Shaun Cavanagh struck over the woodwork from 20 yards.
The closest Caernarfon came to equalising before the break was when home Airbus keeper Dave Roberts misjudged a Darren Thomas corner and a defender’s clearance whistled over the bar from two yards.
The Cofis looked sharper after re-emerging for the second half and an early attempted lob over Roberts from Thomas was a sign of things to come.
Caernarfon’s little wizard became increasingly influential as the match progressed.
He hit the bar with an excellent header after getting on the end of a Nathan Craig free-kick and the introduction of Breese, and Leo Smith on the hour mark undoubtedly gave the Cofis extra impetus.
After a handful of near-misses Town finally got back on level terms when Roberts failed to deal with an in-swinging Thomas corner and spilled the ball into his net.
The Cofi Army’s celebrations were short-lived, however, as the Wingmakers scored immediately from the restart when Sargent set Edwards up after a fine run, the striker finishing into an open goal from three yards.
Eardley responded to the blow by introducing Danny Brookwell off the bench and the flyer made an instant impact when he forced a corner off Jake Phillips.
Thomas provided a moment of magic at this point as he worked a set-piece move with Craig to run to the edge of the penalty area and expertly placed the ball into the bottom right hand corner of Roberts’ goal.
The strike proved a pivotal point in the match as it gave the Cofis the impetus to search for victory.
Pearson missed a golden opportunity to put Caernarfon ahead after Roberts again failed to deal with a cross, but he failed to connect with the ball in front of an open goal.
The visitors were peppering the Airbus goal and Roberts did well to thwart Noah Edwards and Breese with fine saves.
Breese’s big opportunity arrived with less than two of the 90 minutes left on the clock.
Gareth Evans did well to intercept a Ryan Edwards pass on the edge of the Caernarfon area and found Breese with an exquisite pass and the Town striker showed his quality with an excellent finish.