Saturday 24^th March, saw us return to the Dingle for the first time in March after 4 away fixtures and another opportunity to gain our first home win of the season.  Whilst we have had several very good performances @ The Dingle, results have not been with us on most occasions and this game also offered us the opportunity to avenge a heavy defeat by our opponents earlier in the season.

With several players returning from injury and work commitments, the selection took on more regular appearance and with the inclusion of John ‘the Doc’ Williams aged 26, we managed to raise the average age of the team to 20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The opening exchanges saw us put immediate, heavy pressure on the visitors, but from their 1^st attack a well struck shot crashed against the post and away to safety. Our young team quickly accepted the warning, and the game flowed freely from that point with our defence handling the occasional attack competently and the rest of the side pushing forward as often as possible. 

Our bad luck continued to challenge us when after 20 minutes and having settled into our stride, injury to Mark Webber forced us into change and we introduced our Kenyan import Hamisi Hassan for his home debut.  Although ‘yemi’ has been training with us since November, international clearances and work commitments have restricted his appearance and this was only the 2^nd time he had been included in the squad.

Minor readjustments meant temporary disruption to our progress but after a sustained period of pressure we were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Ystradgynlais penalty area and Stephen ‘Big Time’ Howells, on his return after missing the previous 3 games, struck an excellent shot over the wall and into the net.

We continued to dictate the game for the remainder of the half, going close with several chances but once again were unable to increase our goal tally.

The pleasing thing throughout the season has been our ability to create chances but unfortunately we haven’t found the consistency or more importantly had the luck, which would have seen us gain several big scores in this division.

The 2^nd period saw us dictate play again and with our confidence continuing grow, we began to show all best qualities.  With the defence and our midfield dominating the game, we continued to take the game to our opponents and we increased our lead when a good run by the hard working Daniel ‘Matty’ Matthews, presented an opportunity for Matthew James to slot home our 2^nd goal. 

With Hamisi slotting well into our back 4, ably marshalled again by Nicky Hamlyn and Andrew Jakeman, Cai Williams now offered us another threat by pushing on into midfield at every opportunity.  We continued to press for more goals and with all units working well, we created several more chances. 

With 10 minutes remaining a very dubious penalty was awarded for a challenge on the edge of the box and the opposing centre forward sent Dai Rowe the wrong way with a scuffed shot.  We competently absorbed the increased pressure the goal caused us for the next few minutes and ended the game again on the attack, to register victory. 

Our first home win of the season was well deserved and whilst the score line appears close any other result would have been an injustice given our performances throughout the team on the day.

With 5 games remaining, 4 of which are at home, hopefully this result will be the start of another successful period before this season comes to a close.

Related Links:
Res. Team Results 06/07
Res Div West
Reserves v Port Talbot

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