Caernarfon Town FC V Aberystwyth Town
Friday 17 March, 19:45
Caernarfon 0 – 1 Aberystwyth
Caernarfon suffered a setback to their hopes of a play-off spot on Friday as they lost to Aberystwyth at the Oval.
The match was typical of the Cofis’ up and down season, as their recent good run of results has been followed with defeats against two of the league’s bottom three sides in seven days.
The home side started brightly although it took until the tenth minute for them to get a sight of the Aber goal, after Sion Bradley jinked his way to the by-line and looked for Rhys Alun Williams with his delivery, but Matthew Turned did well to get to the cross and clear his lines.
Bradley put Williams through on goal just four minutes later but the recent signing from Porthmadog failed to find the target from twelve yards.
Caernarfon were pinning the visitors back in their own half at this stage and an eighteenth minute Bradley corner was only half cleared to Powell Roberts, who dinked the ball back into the box, where it landed at the feet of Laurie Bell, whose first time effort flew high and wide.
The hosts were awarded another corner a minute later and this time the ball was cleared to Danny Gosset on the edge of the areas, and the midfielder controlled it with his chest before hitting an effort that flew inches wide of the left hand upright with Turner stranded on his line.
There was another opportunity to go ahead on the half hour mark after Joe Faux beat his man on the left flank before cutting inside and into the box, but he hit his low effort directly at Turner.
The batch of missed opportunities would soon come back to haunt the hosts as Aberystwyth went ahead during a rare foray upfield, after Flint did well to create space for himself just inside the box and managed to find the bottom left corner of Josh Tibbetts’ net.
The goal darkened the mood amongst the home supporters, who saw their team fail to respond during a second half that started badly and got worse! The visitors were dominating possession when Laurie Bell showed his frustration in the fifty fourth minute as he reacted poorly to a foul by Flint, and although there was no connection, a feigned clash of heads was enough to see the Town centre half given his marching orders.
It is fair to say that the visitors saw out the reminder of the match in comfortable fashion as Caernarfon failed to find their way back and, as the final whistle approached there was a chorus of boos amongst a section of the home crowd.
The poor result, and performance, sees the Cofis in a relegation fight and ultimately cost Huw Griffiths his job, as the club announced his departure less than twenty four hours later.
Tyn Lon Volvo Garage Man of the Match: Josh Tibbetts.
Team: Josh Tibbetts, Cai Powell Roberts, Gruff John, Aaron Simpson, Laure Bell, Sion Bradley, Daniel Gosset, Joe Faux, Rhys Alun Williams, Thomas Lloyd Marsh-Hughes.
Subs (used): Darren Thomas, Ben Wynne, Rob Hughes, Fabrizio Murtas. Not used: Ryan Woods.
