Llandudno Junction Reserves v Blaenau Ffestiniog

After the severe weather we have experienced over the festive period our away tie versus Blaenau was switched to the Flyover. The Chairman carried out a pitch inspection at 09.30 and gave his approval for the match to be played. With it being three weeks since our last game all our players were available and we were able to name our strongest squad which as you can see would be good enough to beat most teams on any given Saturday:-

Mike Williams

Aaron Jones, Scott Jones, Phil Williams, Sion Watson
James Hobson, Nathan Watson © Danny Parry 1, Chris Darbey
Ross Stevens and Matt Hughes

Craig Evans on for Chris Darbey
Chris Lloyd on for James Hobson
Unused subs Matt Hunt

It was nice to have a Home fixture again; the only thing we would have wished for was this game to have been played before the Christmas period, before the Mince pies, before the lashings of Turkey and before the excessive consumptions of alcohol. As we said the team which we named could deal with any team that we face on any Saturday, home or away.
After a slight mishap with the kit we set about preparing for the game, some of the lads were a bit slow to get off their arses to put up the goals and nets the usual faces were once again getting it all organised which is a shame because if we get back to doing the things off the park as a team we would be better as a team on the pitch. Now to the game, we started off quite well which saw some good build up play down the right hand side and if he ball and found anyone else but Sion we would have surely be one nil up, Sion was caught in two minds what to do and in the end he done neither.
The game was played a decent pace and an excellent block by Aaron denied Blaenau a goal scoring chance. Then the Referee had a mad five minutes and let his excitement get to him, he made some bizarre decisions firstly given an off side that was never even close, then to every one’s surprise he awarded Blaenau a corner which he adjudged Mike to have handled and then once Mike took control of the ball from the corner he penalized Mike for carrying the ball out of his box, thankfully we were not punished by Blaenau. We managed to get hold of the ball and attack through Matt who held the ball up well then he laid it off to Darbey who ran down the left but was stopped in his tracks by some good defending. The game was very much end to end but with no clear cut chances being created, Blaenau went close when their number 10 was put through but he blazed over from just out side the box. Sion received the ball from Mike and went on a surging run down the right hand side and chipped a nice little ball through towards Ross but the ball just ran to far ahead of him. The ball was cleared by Blaenau’s keeper which Nathan headed forward to Matt who turned sharply and fired a good effort which tested their keeper but unfortunately not t much. This time their keeper cleared Nathan with his kick and with a good bit of skill by their number 8 who released their number 9 but thankfully his shot was off target. The game was a typical cup tie which was end to end with some good hard challenges going in and good banter between the players. In the 27th minute we had a break through when a long ball forward by passed everyone but the lively Ross was on to it in a flash and collected the bouncing ball smartly and as he was about to round the keeper he was crudely brought down for a definite pen, this was dispatched by Dan who was delighted to see it hit the back of the net, a slight tonic for him as he was suffering severely with he cold. In the 35th minute saw an unsavory incident saw Blaenau’s number 9 stamp on Sion Watson whilst he was on the ground, any other Referee would have surely sent him off but the Referee only issued a yellow card to everyone’s amazement. Sion soon recovered has he always does and once again started our next attack when he passed to Hobbo who cleverly found Matt who once again turned well and let rip with a good left foot drive which the keeper smoothed well. This brought an end to a first half were Blaenau could easily have been reduced to 9 men and a score line of 1 – 0 to Junction.

We tried to calm the lads down at half time as all were incensed by the Referee’s actions, we managed to get a few ideas across to the lads as how we can change the way we were playing to try and create more chances. Blaenau came flying out of the traps for the second half and tested Mike straight away; Mike managed to block the first attempt and then saved bravely at the feet of Blaenau’s number 10. With all the recent rain the pitch was very heavy and the lads seem to be struggling with their fitness, we replaced Hobbo who was struggling with a very painful leg injury and introduced Lloydy to brighten things up a bit. Darbey was also tiring and a good shout by Disco kept him on his toes to get back in time to halt a goal scoring opportunity, within minutes of this Darbey took the full force of a clearance from in the Crown Jewels which had him squealing like a pig in a slaughterhouse. With Blaenau pushing on to get an equalizer they seemed to improve with the confidence they were taking from the possession they were having, and a speculative effort saw Mike fumble the ball but Aaron cleared well to avert the danger. In the 63rd minute we had the chance to extend our lead when Darbey took a good throw in to Matt who climbed well and flicked on into Lloydys path who was unlucky with his effort. With our lads now really tiring because of the lack of games recently Blaenau were creating the better of the chances and when they were awarded a corner in the 72nd minute along with our tiring bodies our minds went to sleep and left their number 6 free to head home an equalizer 1-1.
Blaenau had now upped their game and Danny and Nathan had their work cut out in the middle of the park and as Blaenau kept the ball very well we were getting more and more frustrated and in the 78th minute Blaenau were awarded a penalty which was struck with some venom only to strike the upright and the score line remain at 1-1. The game was edging towards the final seconds when out of no where came the best bit of football by Blaenau when they played a series of one two’s through the middle of the park and Blaenau’s number 6 slotted home and made it 1-2 and he end of our cup dream.

Overall a good battling performance considering it was our first game in three weeks, we can take a lot of positives from this game which hopefully we can take into our next game against Mostyn Dragons who we haven’t met yet so once again we go into the unkown!