WELSH LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
CROESYCEILIOG .......... 1 ABERDARE TOWN ........ 1
AN 80th-minute equaliser from Ricky Carter salvaged a point after a hard fought tussle in poor conditions at Woodfield Park, Cwmbran.
This maintains an unbeaten run and fifth place in the division as Aberdare get used to the more physical aspects of play, prevalent in this division.
Manager Matt Driscoll brought in Scott Woodford and John Phillips for starts while facing them was ex-Aberdare keeper Giles Cutlan.
But it was current Aber keeper Clint Forbes first in action, to tip away a thunderous drive emanating from a training ground short corner ploy. Aberdare began to threaten with Warren Jones and Lewis Holder powerful in midfield allowing Jason Henley and Josh Powell to drive forward on the flanks to support Carter and Elliot Morris.
A Powell knockdown gave Carter a half-chance at the edge of the box but his effort flew narrowly wide.
As the weather deteriorated so did some of Aberdare’s play as they were becoming guilty of giving the ball away allowing the hosts to spring attacks. One such sloppy series of errors gave Croesyceiliog a great chance to score and it was only an acrobatic finger-tip save by Forbes, that saved the day.
Things needed fresh- ening up and Luke Jones was introduced at the beginning of the half to add pace to the midfield.
But Aberdare kept to the script and as seems inevitable at the beginning of second periods, allowed the visitors to dictate but this time it took a breakdown in a good attacking situation to allow speedy Croesy winger Will Lygo to streak away and finish superbly for the opener.
It appears that Aberdare need to fall behind to engage them 100% and this was to manifest itself as they controlled the remainder of the match with Morris and Powell going close and a solid home defence putting their bodies on the line to deny Aberdare parity of score line.
Scott Woodford has suffered a catalogue of injuries this season and yet again had to limp off to be replaced by Christian Collins who fitted in immediately with the strong backline marshalled so well by Jack Howe.
Levi Jones again giving a performance belying his age was replaced by Tom Mouncher as Aberdare continued to go through the gears on a now testing surface. The equaliser came 10 minutes from time. A clever one-two from a short left-flank corner involving Henley and Luke Jones saw the latter cross for Carter to fire home from the right edge of goal.
It was all Aberdare now with a Mouncher header going wide of goal but with no-one able to provide that killer touch. Right on time a Mouncher cross found Carter who nodded across but Luke Jones skewed over from two yards and the visitors had to be content with the one point.
If Aberdare can cut down on the occasional misplaced pass they will have a successful season and this Saturday sees them home to one of last season’s relegated First Division teams when they renew acquaintances with Garden Village and a 2.30pm kick off at Aberaman Park.