Garden Village  6
Ashley Richards (11'), Paul Dickie (21' & 29'),
Marc Lloyd (51') & Steven Evans (63' & 74')

Caerau (Ely)  1
Justin Hollis (68')

Shamrock Travel Welsh League Cup Round 3
Saturday January 28th, 2006

Garden Village put in an excellent display to see off a physical Caerau (Ely) side and reach the quarter finals of the Shamrock Travel Welsh League Cup. Three goals in each half from Paul Dickie (2), Steven Evans (2), Marc Lloyd and Ashley Richards ensured Village of their place in the last 8 of the competition to extend our unbeaten run to 10 matches out of the last 11.

The home side were without Dayle Selvage and Lee Waite but welcomed back midfielder Marc Lloyd after he missed the win over Caerau (Ely) the week before. David Evans returned to the side after sitting out the last 7 weeks through injury, as did veteran midfielder Nicholas Romanello who hasn’t featured in the first-team since September.

It took Village just 11 minutes to open the scoring and it came courtesy of top-scorer Ashley Richards, the 12-goal striker got himself on the end of a Steven Evans cross from the left to smash ball low into the net. That lead was doubled 10 minutes later when Paul Dickie intercepted a long Mark Snell clearance, thanks mainly to a mix-up between two visiting defenders, and rounded the goalkeeper to slot the ball into the net.

Justin Hollis had a chance to pull one back for Caerau (Ely) a few minutes later after a mistake by Steve Bater inside the area, but the pacy forward was unable to get enough power behind his shot which was sent straight at Mark Snell.

Village further extended their lead just before the half-hour mark through Paul Dickie, who took his tally to seven goals in the five matches since joining the club last month. He was set-up by strike partner Ashley Richards and struck his shot well past the oncoming ‘keeper and found the back of the net via the post.

Jamie Mansell stopped Justin Hollis scoring a certain goal with a fine tackle 6-yards from goal on 37 minutes while shortly before the break David Rimmer intercepted a short free-kick from Marc Lloyd and struck his low shot low past the up-right.

: HALF-TIME :
Garden Village 3 - 0 Caerau (Ely)

It took Garden Village just 6 second-half minutes to find the net for the fourth time in the match; a ball across the box from Ashley Richards found the un-marked Marc Lloyd to drill his strike into the bottom corner.

Ashley Richards himself came close to scoring his second on 55 minutes when his flicked effort dipped inches over the top, but shortly afterwards the fifth goal did come courtesy of Steven Evans. A ball in from the right-hand side was pushed away by the goalkeeper but the re-bound was hammered into the roof of the net by the midfielder to score his seventh of the season.

The visitors pulled one back 5 minutes later from a close-range Justin Hollis strike but soon after that Village struck for the sixth and final time. Caerau’s goalkeeper parried a David Rimmer free-kick but there to pick up the pieces was Steven Evans to register his second of the afternoon and eighth of the campaign.

Ashley Richards had a goal disallowed for off-side 11 minutes from time and substitute Derrick Jenkins put his shot into the side-netting a minute into injury-time after picking up on an excellent cross-field pass from brother Jack, but Village were celebrating their largest victory since October 2004.

The draw for the quarter finals takes place on the evening of Tuesday February 14 and we will be joined in that draw by Maesteg Park, Morriston, Neath Athletic, Penrhiwceiber, Pontardawe, UWIC and one of Merthyr Saints and Llanwern.

Village: Mark Snell; Jamie Mansell, Steve Bater, David Rimmer (David Evans 76'); Marc Lloyd (Derrick Jenkins 65'), Paul Bromage, Chris Thomas (Nicky Romanello 70'), Steven Evans, Jack Jenkins; Paul Dickie, Ashley Richards.