THE NATHANIEL CAR SALES WELSH LEAGUE DIVISION TWO

AFC LLWYDCOED ........ 2 ABERGAVENNY TOWN 1

LLWYDCOED gained a vital three points to ease their relegation worries against an Aber team who had worked so hard to gain a result.

The AFC Llwydcoed management team of Lee Williams and Leighton Price were unavailable so in stepped James Joseph and Stuart Williams to take charge, the squad were still missing Luke Garthwaite, Jay Woodford, Gabriel Williams and Jordan Ellis.

The match began in difficult conditions with a very strong bitterly cold wind. Aber started the better of the two teams building attacks through Owen Vaughan and Sean Feeley, they came desperately close to opening the scoring on a few occasions. More good play for Aber by Toby Parvis and Nathan Davies saw them score the opening goal. Llwydcoed’s problem had not been helped by the changes in the team over the past month.

The visitors were by far the more settled unit moving and creating attacks. The hosts’ goalkeeper Ryan Griffiths was thankfully on top form again saving chance after chance. Gradually Llwydcoed began to gain possession through Correy Roberts, Ioan Evans and Liam Price. Aber again tested the Llwydcoed defence and midfield who looked more comfortable with Callum Henry doing excellent playing totally out of position in defence supported by Adam Butler, Stuart Evans and Liam Jones. Aber had the advantage of a strong rear gale force wind in the first half and although Llwydcoed had defended for most of the half they were only one goal in arrears.

As the first half came to a close Llwydcoed lost Scott Walters to injury. It was later confirmed as torn ligaments – another setback for the squad.

The second half began more positively for Llwydcoed. They began to gain some possession. Jonathan Mason had replaced the unlucky Scott Walters. Aber were still comfortable defending their onegoal advantage, building from defence through Callum Evans and Aaron Norman creating more problems for the hosts but Llwydcoed’s midfield began to show their quality through Morgan Andrews, Ioan Evans and the excellent Rikki Evans.

Jonathan Mason’s first effort showed his prowess and he found space in the Aber defence after some brilliant movement by Callum Henry he raced through several Aber players on a 30-yard run and played him through to score after the Aber goalkeeper Keiran White saved the first shot.

This was a big turning point and the introduction of Cian Cable and the tactical decision by coach James Joseph saw Llwydcoed gain the ascendancy. They began to create more and more attacks with Corey, Roberts, Ioan Evans and Morgan Andrews in charge and the pressure paid off with Rikki Evans finding space to shoot low past the Aber goalkeeper Kieran White to score.

Aber had not gained the amount of possession they had in the first half but they almost broke clear and it took a brilliant tackle by Llwydcoed’s Liam Jones to stop the Aber striker from racing clear. Aber kept pressing for the equaliser winning a succession of corners that the Llwydcoed defenders midfield cleared brilliantly thanks to some super attitude and courage and those factors gave them the victory.

Special mention to Callum Henry for his great attitude on such a late call-up.