NATHANIEL CARS WELSH FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
LLWYDCOED returned to the Cynon Valley with a valuable point after an eight-goal thriller, rescuing a draw with a last-minute goal by 17-year-old Liam Price who scored a hat-trick.
Price opened the scoring in the first minute of the match.
Llwydcoed management team Lee Williams and Leighton Price recalled Scott Walters and Jay Woodford to the starting line-up.
The match began with Llwydcoed’s midfield of Chris Stonelake, Oliver Roberts, Jay Woodford and Ricky Carter linking up the play, superbly breaking open the Sports midfield defence and Liam Price scored in the opening minutes.
More inventive play by Morgan Andrews, Woodford, Carter and Roberts saw Price score his second.
The Sports then began to show their attacking prowess through Josh Graham and Lamin Conteh testing the Llwydcoed defenders Liam Jones, Gabriel Williams, Adam Butler and Scott Walters who cleared the danger.
After a spell of pressure by the Sports their first really good chance saw the ball crash against the crossbar.
Both teams began to create chances and the Sports reduced the scoreline. Curtis Scotto took full advantage of Llwydcoed losing possession and scored.
The Sports midfield of Dale Gardiner and Chris Worsley put more pressure on Llwydcoed’s defence resulting in a foul and a penalty for Sports scored by Curtis Scotto. The Sports had drawn level and finished the first half stronger than Llwydcoed who had to withdraw Gabriel Williams through injury, Luke Davies stepping in.
Llwydcoed were forced into another change at the start of the second half. Oliver Roberts (illness) was replaced by Leon Bansal.
The second half started with Llwydcoed beginning slowly to control the possession. The Sports players were not finding the space like they did at the end of the first half although the warnings were there. The visitors began to gain good possession through Chris Stonelake, Scott Walters, Jay Woodford and Morgan Andrews and his sublime pass to Ricky Carter saw him score with a top finish.
So the Llwydcoed players had regained their belief. The introduction of their third substitute Jonathan Mason gave them another attacking option. Chances came and went but the Sports were not finished, they took full advantage of winning possession from Llwydcoed’s midfield whose goalkeeper Andy Hargreaves made a point blank save and Adam Butler cleared bravely as the ball was about to reach a Sports player but cruelly as the ball fell to the edge of the penalty area Curtis Scotto shot through both sets of players to score and equalise.
More good play by Llwydcoed’s Liam Price saw Ricky Carter break open the Sports defence but his shot just missed the target, the Sports responded and they were allowed too much room in Llwydcoed’s midfield winning a free kick taken by Curtis Scotto his shot taking a horrible deflection to score.
So after being 0-2 up and 2-3 up Llwydcoed were now 4-3 down with minutes remaining. They kept believing in themselves with Scott Walters linking up the play with Jay Woodford, Jonathan Mason, and Liam Price scored with a quality finish to equalise. A deserved equaliser bringing to an end of a pulsating football match.