November 3rd 2007
Llandudno Junction Reserves v Rhyl Nomads.

Last week saw us put in the worst performance of any season so with the arrival of Rhyl Nomads from the Premier Division you could be forgiven in thinking that this would be a whitewash. In the midweek training session we worked on three touch, quick competitive football and the session was a success although a slight altercation soured a very good session we stopped early so I could let the lads know how disgusted I was with the performance and the certain shenanigans that went on, on the Friday night. This week we could have changed most of the team as the performance was that bad but we decided to go with the following and let them prove that it was a one off:-

Mike Hughes
Sion Watson, Phil Williams 1, Scott Jones, Aaron Jones,
James Hobson 1, Nathan Watson ©, Danny Parry, Chris Darbey
Ross Stevens 2 and Matt Hughes 1
Craig Evans on for Matt
Chris Lloyd on for James Hobson
Matt Hunt on for Sion Watson
Unused subs Ashley Jones.

As you can see we brought Mike and Aaron back into the starting line up as Joey had returned to the 1st team and took Tom Roberts along for the ride and Aaron freed up Darbey to play further up the park. Although the performance was poor last week we were quietly confident that we could get a result against the Premier league outfit, as when we have played higher opposition in the past we have given a good account of ourselves. We arrived at the Home of Football just as the biggest game of the Season was kicking off at the Emirates, gutted! so to take the minds off that game the lads got the pitch ready for the arrival of the big guns of Rhyl, but all they did on their arrival was moan, they moaned about the smell, they moaned about the coffee, they moaned about the facilities, they moaned about the changing rooms they even moaned about the fact that they couldn’t warm up on the pitch. This was an obvious problem for some of the Superstars of Rhyl as they were too good to warm up any where but the pitch, although they had been asked not too when they decided to warm up a few of Rhyl’s finest went on to the pitch and started their warm up!

This consisted of hoofing the ball about like little kids who have just seen a football for the very first time. One of the senior officials eventually stopped their embarrassment by calling the stars of the pitch and to carry out the proper warm up with the rest of the squad. The game kicked off, on time with the correct official this week, and within 3 minutes Rhyl pumped the ball forward which Sion attempted to head back to Mike but got it all wrong and Rhyl’s number 9 latched onto it but pulled his shot wide. This was a day for football and on 5 minutes we started to play a bit, we got the ball down and knocked it about very well, which resulted in us playing the ball from the back into midfield where Nathan played a good ball to Darbey who took on Rhyl’s fullback and delivered a good cross which Ross managed to get on the end of and forced Rhyl’s keeper into a save. We had our tails up and were really forcing our presence on the game, again we created an opportunity that had Ross through on goal and in control of the ball but was sent sprawling by the over aggressive number 5 but no penalty was given.
Justice however was not long in coming when the Sion played a delightful ball into Ross who finished to make it 1-0, and within a few minutes of the restart we gained possession of the ball again and Ross had a low hard shot but this time the keeper was equal to it. Rhyl didn’t seem to like having to work hard for a result and we believe they thought they could just turn up and say thanks very much, this had a negative effect on their game and it wasn’t long before they were whinging to the Referee, although they did create a chance on 15 minutes but Mike made a fantastic save to deny Rhyl’s number 9. Mike launched the ball forward towards Matt who controlled the ball well, turned his marker but unfortunately fired just wide of the up right. Rhyl again launched the ball forward and Azzy cleared with a solid header which Ross took down on his chest who played the ball to Matt but this time the final ball was misplaced which denied Darbey a chance on goal after he had made a great run on the blindside of the defender. Rhyl were getting frustrated by the lack of possession and they resorted into trying to intimidate the lads by verbal and physical abuse and were soon giving the Referee the opportunity to award us free kick after free kick. One incident saw their number four get a lecture of the Referee, Hobbo played the ball into Nathan’s path, who had made a great run but the Referee decided he was off side.
In the 28th minute Rhyl were awarded a free kick of their own but as the ball was arrowing for the top corner Mike pulled off a spectacular one handed save and kept the score at 1-0. This gave Rhyl a boost and with some good interplay in midfield they released their number 9 who turned but got his shot all wrong and blazed well wide. Again we were awarded a free kick and Hobbo this time picked out Phil who had a free header and made it 2-0, everything was going to plan and Rhyl did not like it one bit. Rhyl resorted in long ball time and time again and when Aaron headed clear to Nathan who attempted to head to Darbey Rhyl’s number 8 read the situation and intercepted the ball but fortunately he shot well over. The football was a joy to watch and when Paz gained control of the ball he played a sublime pass to Darbey who instantly crossed to Matt but was judged to be offside by the Referee, we continued to dominate and when Darbey created a chance of his own we found ourselves out of position and a long punt from Rhyl found Rhyl’s number 10 clearly in an offside position which the Referee didn’t give and as Mike closed the ball down he chipped in to make it 2-1 and that’s how it remained until half time.

We discussed a few things at half time but the two main things were to get an early goal and keep the discipline in check and we would go on and win the game easily, this time it was our turn to lump the ball forward to Matt who passed to Darbs but his shot was blocked. The play was all ours in the opening minutes of the second half and when Darbs clipped the ball to the far post we thought Hobbo would get our early goal but the keeper saved well. The 49th minute saw the move of the match when Azzy cleared the ball forward and as the ball was going back to the keeper Ross applied some pressure who rushed his clearance which fell to Hobbo who played the ball first time to Matt who played a one two with Ross and Matt coolly finished to make it 3-1. This time the challenges were getting higher and the tempers were getting flared, but the lads remained calm and continued to play the beautiful game in the right manor even Sion went on a little mazy run which was brought to an end with another rash tackle, and within two minutes Rhyl’s number 5 lost the plot totally and booted Hobbo into the air with the ball no where near this resulted in a yellow card for the offender which could easily have been a red.
There was no respite for Rhyl as the lads ploughed forward and in the 62nd minute Matt was fed the ball which he controlled and laid off to Nathan who drilled the ball into Hobbo who managed to control the ball and with a quick turn fired low passed the helpless keeper this made it 4-1. As I have said before the Clwyd leagues bring a lot of never say die attitude although Rhyl had no chance of winning this game they kept going and were unlucky not to be awarded a pen in the 75th minute when a clumsy challenge could have easily gone against us but as the Referee had by this time had heard enough abuse to last a lifetime he didn’t award the kick and maybe this was his way of making up for the one he could of given in our favour in the first half. We kept up the pressure on a Rhyl side who seemed to be tiring and when Ross bagged his brace to make it 5-1 with a sweet shot the writing was on the wall for the boys from Rhyl.
They kept plucking away and when they managed to get the ball down and play the created a chance but again Mike pulled off another one handed save which this time resulted in a corner, which Rhyl fired in and the frustrated number 5 got his head to and made the sore line 5-2 but this was to be a consolation for the big boys from Rhyl. Again we attacked and tore them apart and when Beef went clean through for a one on one we thought it had to be 6 but he shot straight at the keeper in the closing stages of the game the very impressive Ross lobbed the ball across the box to find Lloydy lurking at the back post but the keeper managed to scramble across to prevent him bagging a cheeky little goal. As the game finished we received an apology from Rhyl’s number 5 for losing his head and he put it down to be so frustrated by us, this was a very good team performance and just goes to show how good we can be when we stay in on a Friday night, hopefully now the players understand the importance of plenty of rest and a clean head this week we travel to St Asaph who will want to make up for our last visit and will be ready to burst our bubble.

Thanks to everyone who eventually came to the Flyover to support the lads I am sure our game was much more exciting than the one at the Emirates.