JD CYMRU PREMIER
CONNAH’S Quay Nomads brought a tragic week to a winning end to move into the second phase of the JD Cymru Premier League as the team to beat.
The reigning champions completed the 22-match first phase of the campaign with 57 points from a possible 65 with 18 wins, three draws and only one defeat at TNS.
But Nomads boss Andy Morrison had read the riot act to his players at half-time at Newtown in order to get his team back on track after falling behind to a secondminute goal from Rob Breese and go on to win 5-1.
That meant they finished three points clear of deadly rivals The New Saints on top of the table.
With 10 games to go to decide who wins the title – phase two sees the top six sides split from the bottom six to play in the Championship section – Morrison believes his team can hang onto their crown.
“It is going to be SaturdayTuesday every week and that is going to benefit us and TNS, who can best cope with that. We have 60% of our players who are full-time and it will be harder for the other clubs,” said Morrison.
“But we can’t afford to think we can just turn up anywhere and win. We didn’t match Newtown in the first half and we forget about the back door - I wasn’t going to accept that first-half performance and I told the players that.”
Craig Curran levelled after 20 minutes and then Neil Danns gave the Nomads the lead with his first goal for the club in the 63rd minute. After that it was one-way traffic as further goals came from Callum Morris from the penalty spot, the prolific Michael Wilde and finally Jamie Insall.
It was a fitting end to a week in which Morrison lost his mother-in-law, Aeron Edwards lost his mother and Sam Dool learned his season is over because of an ACL knee injury.
Haverfordwest County’s bid to bag a top-six finish failed at the final hurdle as they were beaten 2-0 by Penybont. The Pembrokeshire side fell behind to a headed goal from a corner by Sam Snaith on the stroke of half-time. Then Mael Davies started and finished a very special second effort that killed off the visitors’ hopes.
Caernarfon weren’t in bad shape at half-time at Park Hall having only conceded a single goal to Blaine Hudson, but then fell apart after the break. Ryan Brobbel punished them with two goals, the second coming moments after Mike Parker had been sent off for the visitors for dissent, and Hudson’s second from a corner made it 4-0 to The New Saints in the end.
Louis Kondjo grabbed a consolation goal for the visitors in added time, but by then they were safe and secure in sixth place thanks to Penybont’s victory over Haverfordwest.
Nat Jarvis gave Barry Town United the lead at Cardiff
Met in the 58th minute, but no sooner had the students gone behind than they got back on level terms five minutes later with a smart reply from Emlyn Lewis. But a 90th-minute effort from Evan Press won it in the end for Barry.
Aberystwyth Town picked up all the points as they beat Cefn Druids 3-1. Two goals in the opening 10 minutes from John Owen and Matthew Jones set up the win for the home side.
In the other game, Chris Venables scored two of the goals for Bala Town in their 5-1 home win over Flint Town United.