Caernarfon V Newtown
Friday 01 March, 19:45
Town Up To Fourth After Victory Over Robins.
Caernarfon 1 – 0 Newtown
Newtown were the visitors to the Carling Oval on Friday evening and, over recent years, they have become something of a bogey side for Caernarfon but a hard fought 2-1 victory by the Cofis over the Robins earlier this season put an end to the run of results.
With Newtown on a poor run of form, having lost their last seven matches before Friday, Richard Davies and his men will have felt that Scott Ruscoe’s side may have been the perfect opposition as they looked to bounce back from a heavy defeat to TNS seven days earlier.
Caernarfon can sometimes be guilty of starting their matches slowly but this was not the case on Friday, and an early run by Sion Bradley to the byline saw his cross very nearly reach Gwion Dafydd before an outstretched defender’s leg took the ball away from the advancing striker.
Newtown’s Ryan Sears tested Town keeper Lewis Webb in the tenth minute with a low shot that the stopper did well to hold on to at his near post and, four minutes later Fumpa Mwandwe’s effort from twenty yards flew a couple of feet wide of Lewis’ left post.
Caernarfon’s Sion Bradley was proving a handful on the left flank and he was frustrated to see his excellent goalbound effort deflected over the bar in the twenty eighth minute.
The hosts were getting on top as the first half reached its final third and they went ahead in the thirty eighth minute. The instigator was Dion Donohue, who won the ball on the right side of midfield and ran to the edge of the penalty area before finding Danny Gosset, who curled the ball around two defenders and into the bottom left hand corner of the visitors’ goal, leaving keeper Andrew Wycherley stranded on his line. It was an excellent finish from the midfielder and just reward for the hosts.
The next serious goalmouth action took place eleven minutes into the second half when Bradley found Darren Thomas with a cross field pass that saw the Caernarfon captain in space on the right side of the box but his low cross into the six yard area was hooked clear by Shane Sutton, who was an important figure at the back all night for the visitors.
The introduction of Zack Clarke in the sixty fifth minute seemed to add some impetus to Caernarfon’s attack, and he caused the Newtown defence plenty of problems as soon as he joined the action. A minute after he came on, Clarke had the ball in the Newtown net but the referee decided to overrule his linesman and declared that the striker was in an offside position when he ran on to the ball.
Webb pulled off a superb save in the sixty seventh minute to deny Geroge Hughes, whose volley had taken a deflection and was heading into the top lefthand corner of the net until the stopper’s intervention.
Aadam Davies went close to doubling the lead in the eightieth minute when he received the ball from Louis Lloyd, but Town’s top scorer this season pulled his shot wide of the right upright when well placed.
Wycherley denied a certain Clarke goal a minute later when he acrobatically tipped the goalbound ball over his bar and, despite fine efforts by Lloyd, Cartwright and Bradley in the final minutes, Caernarfon had to settle for their slender one goal victory. The result means that the Cofis currently occupy fourth position in the Cymru Premier League.
Tyn Lon Volvo Garage Man of the Match: Lewis Webb.
Team: Lewis Webb, Morgan Owen, Gruff John, Dion Donohue, Iwan Cartwright, Danny Gosset, Sion Bradley, Marc Williams, Adam Davies, Darren Thomas, Gwion Dafydd. Subs (used): Zack Clarke, Louis Lloyd. Not used: Hari Thomas, Ben Maher, Joe Faux, Steffan Alford, Cai Griffith.