Penybont look to bounce back after opening defeat
THE Cymru Premier League is back in earnest tomorrow with a full set of fixtures and all three South Wales clubs looking for victories.
Rhys Griffiths’ Penybont in fact made their restart on Tuesday evening at Newtown where they were surprisingly beaten 2-0 by Newtown, who were in the bottom two before the game.
Penybont were generally outplayed throughout the 90 minutes at Latham Park and will look to perform better tomorrow at Flint Town.
Penybont were the surprise team of the first phase and will be respected and challenged like they were on Tuesday at Newtown which could make their remaining six games before the break difficult encounters.
Neil Gibson, Flint’s new manager, has recruited well in the break and will make his team more physical which is a contrasting style to Penybont’s fast footballing technique which should make it a very interesting game.
After the midweek defeat, a point would not be a bad return from a long trip north for Griffiths and his team.
Barry Town restart with a trip to Cefn Druids. Gavin Chesterfield’s team are currently in fourth place in the table and will hope to stay in that position at least until the season’s predicted finish at the end of May.
Kayne McLaggon, Barry’s top scorer, will be absent with a hand injury, so Nat Jarvis, Curtis Hutson and new signing Jamie Bird will be expected to provide goals in McLaggon’s absence.
Robbie Patton should make a longawaited comeback in the Linnets’ midfield and could be joined by Callum
Sainty and Keyon Raffell, who have both had lengthy periods on the sidelines.
Lee Idzi and Mike Lewis should contest the goalkeeping slot and Barry will look to get off with a win against the Druids, who started to play well before the seasons early break.
With European ambitions, Chesterfield’s team will be looking for a threepoint haul on the road before their midweek encounter against Penybont next Tuesday.
Cardiff Met head west to visit Bridge Meadow tomorrow and take on Haverfordwest County.
The Met’s season hasn’t gone as well as manager Christian Edwards would have wished but a target of a sixth-placed finish could still be achieved if a fully-fit student squad can go on a winning run and Edwards, pictured left, hopes it will start tomorrow.
He said: “We have nearly got a full complement of players fit again now for the restart, including Chris Baker, who is probably our most underrated player, but is the type of individual who does the work a lot of people don’t often appreciate”.
Ex-Bristol Rovers player Olly Hulbert and winger Liam Warmen will spearhead the Met attack, while Emlyn Lewis and Brad Woolridge will hope to keep the Bluebirds’ attack quiet.
The Haverfordwest strikers of Danny Williams, Jack Wilson and Dan Fawcett have been in excellent form so far this season and are one of the main reasons why the West Walians are currently holding a top-six slot.