Cofis victory means Edwards misses out on fairytale ending
MIKE Hayes ruined Cardiff Met’s plans for a winning send-off for long-serving manager Christian Edwards by coming up with a goal at the end of the first half to give Caernarfon Town a 1-0 win in the JD Cymru Play-off semi-finals.
Edwards announced last year that he would be stepping down at the end of this season after 13 years in the job, but his side couldn’t find a way to unlock the Cofis defence to reach a final shootout with Flint Town United.
“They finished fourth and we were seventh and even though we threw everything at them they deserve to be in the final,” said Edwards.
“This is the end of an era for me. I was asked to take over the club in 2009 and I just did my job – 13 years and 600-odd games.
“Everyone will talk about our vintage season in 2019, but for me it was all about my players and my players becoming men. Probably my greatest moments were watching six players get Phds.
“Football is good, but for our players it is more about being dual career athletes. Who knows what the future holds, but if there is a chairman out there I might be tempted.”
The home side started well, with Met goalkeeper Alex Lang forced to make a smart save early on from a Darren Thomas strike.
As the students worked their way into the game, Eliot Evans forced two saves from Jacob Ojrzynski in the home goal.
The breakthrough came just before the break as Hayes converted a Darren Thomas pass into what proved to be the only goal of the game.
Emlyn Lewis headed just over from a free-kick as Met pushed forward in the second half, but not even a change of shape by Edwards as his side went in pursuit of an equaliser could breach the Caernarfon defence.
In the other semi-final, Penybont suffered further agony as their 3-2 JD Welsh Cup final defeat was followed by a penalty shootout loss to Flint Town United.
It was a ninth straight defeat in all competitions for Rhys Griffiths’ side and came after they had held the North Walians to a 1-1 scoreline after 90 minutes. Then came the dreaded shootout and a 3-1 defeat that saw Flint through to a final with Caernarfon Town next Saturday.
Flint struck first with a sixth-minute goal from skipper Alex Jones. Things went from bad to worse for Penybont as defender Liam Walsh was forced off just after the goal with a wrist injury. But they worked their way back into the contest and forced Flint keeper Joe Rushton into a number of saves.
It was 1-0 at the break, but it only took five minutes of the second half for the visitors to level. Flint’s Ben Nash was booked for holding a player in the area and up stepped Nathan Wood to fire in the penalty to level the scores.
The game finished 1-1 and moved into extratime. The best chance of the opening half of the extra period fell to Penybont’s Kostya Georgievsky, who wriggled free in the box only to shoot wide.
In the second half, Penybont won a second penalty when Kai Whitmore was tripped by Sam Duffy. Wood stepped up for the second time, but this time fired his penalty against the bar.
As the game went into a shootout, Kane Owen saw the first spot-kick for Penybont saved. Mark Cadwallader made it 1-0 to Flint and then Sam Snaith levelled.
Dan Harrison hit the target for Flint to maintain their advantage before Wood missed again. Ben Maher finished things off by making it 3-1 to Flint.