Another evening kick off; saw us again on our travels to Victoria Road, Port Talbot.  A bitterly cold night could not detract from the pitch conditions, which were as usual, excellent and our hopes for the evening’s performance were high and optimistic.  My anticipation was sorely dented when the referee took the field without his glasses.  As he had arrived with lenses so thick they looked like the bottom of a Guinness glass, John and myself were severally concerned for his decision making and boy were we right!!!!!!!

Once again several changes were made to the starting line up. 

With the recent departure of Matthew ‘Tinker’ Martin, Dai Rowe, the team’s top goal scorer, took up his usual position in goal and Paul Batcup came into the back four.  With Paul ‘Eddy’ Edwards and Derek Jenkins, absent from the 1^st team line up at the week end, it was an opportunity for them to test their fitness and a late withdrawal forced me to include Garry Taylor.  1^st team assistant manager Steve Brown, on his return to his home town, shunned the opportunity to play as it was tooooo cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our hosts started the game with a very quick tempo and we were quickly made aware of their pace up front.  With several players with League of Wales experience in their line up, it was obviously going to be a difficult night all round.  Port Talbot opened the scoring after about 10 minutes and quickly followed with a 2^nd.  As we clawed our way back into the game we began to find space on our right and we began to play some reasonable football, as our defence started to come to terms with Port Talbot’s pace up front.  However, ‘several’ dubious decisions from the Official, confirmed our fears about his eyesight and contributed to the problems we were encountering from our opponents.  After receiving several ‘physical’ challenges, our frustrations started to boil over and we conceded a number of silly fouls in dangerous areas, adding to our problems.  For some reason, once again mild mannered Cai Williams became the target and one challenge in particular, which threatened to remove his eyebrows, saw Cai retaliate by attempting to French kiss his opponent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  For once the ref saw the funny side of it, unlike Cai’s girl friend Gemma, sitting in the stand, when he asked for Cai’s telephone number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Jealousy is a terrible thing, but I am told he has got something about him and loves dressing up!

An excellent free kick from Garry Taylor saw Derek Jenkins smash a perfect half volley into the Port Talbot net, which the referee promptly disallowed for a very dubious offside.  Whether this would have kick started our recovery or not we will never know but we reached half time having conceded another 2 goals without a positive reply.

Having lost Eddie on half time, our fight back was further hampered by a 5^th goal bundled in by a forward, after a ball across our area with 6 defenders within touching distance.  After several good breaks and chances Karl Barfoot struck a great shot from the edge of the box, entering the net off a post, only for the ref to disallow for another ‘mysterious infringement’.  Another effort appeared to cross the Port Talbot goal line, with our opponents’ reactions indicating a goal, only for the ref, at least 25 yards away, deciding after 30seconds, not to award it.  It was obvious from the defenders reactions that something had happened as the keeper and full back reacted with frustration, but it was obviously not our night and the score stood at 6-1 instead of a possible 6-3. 

With our opponents adding 2 further goals we were left to rue a disappointing performance, albeit against opponents with more experience at a higher level.  Whilst there are valuable lessons to be learned by the players and this must go down as part of their learning curve, it was disappointing not show our potential on a bigger stage. 

Whilst commitment and endeavour can never be doubted, a constant desire to win must quickly be added to our abilities in the remaining 6 games of the season, if we are going to achieve anything for our efforts.

Related Links:
Reserves v Afan Lido
Res. Team Results 06/07
Res Div West