Caernarfon Town up to second after toppling champions The New Saints

Caernarfon Town 1 (Breese 71)
The New Saints 0
JD Cymru Premier – October 4, 2019

Caernarfon hit the heady heights of second place in the Cymru Premier after stretching their unbeaten league run to eight matches by toppling champions The New Saints at The Oval on Friday night.

The in-form Jamie Breese’s 71st minute goal was enough to secure the Canaries a revenge victory over a TNS outfit which beat them by the same score on the opening weekend of the campaign – Town’s only league defeat so far.

Caernarfon were on top from the off and created a number of early chances.

First, an edge of the box effort from Leo Smith went narrowly over the crossbar, before Blaine Hudson produced some heroic defending to keep it at 0-0.

Nathan Craig then went close with a free-kick which just missed the target.

Saints eventually settled and threatened themselves, Kurtis Byrne forcing a couple of good saves from home goalkeeper Alex Ramsay.

In the 33rd minute, good link-up play between Hudson and Dean Ebbe gave the latter an opportunity, but Ramsay was off his line quickly to avert the danger.

Breese forced another save from Paul Harrison in the 35th minute, his effort on the turn testing the visiting captain.

Early in the second period, Ryan Brobbel sent an effort narrowly wide for the champions, who then had shouts for a penalty waved away after Ebbe went to ground under challenge from Ramsay.

The teams then had a spell of cancelling each other out before the deadlock was broken on 71 minutes.

The lively Darren Thomas drilled a majestic pass out wide for Danny Brookwell, who cut inside and fed the ball into the box for Breese, who made no mistake as he finished expertly into the far corner from an angle to send the home fans into raptures.

Desperate to avoid back-to-back league losses, Saints finished strongly, Chris Marriott seeing an effort cannon back off the post and bounce to safety, before Brobbel forced a save from a free-kick in stoppage time.

TNS specialise in late goals, but on this occasion it was not to be as Caernarfon held on for an heroic victory in front of a brilliant crowd of 951.

Caernarfon: Alex Ramsay, Nathan Craig, Gareth Evans (Sam Jones 90 +3), Jamie Crowther, Jamie Breese (Gareth Edwards 79), Darren Thomas, Danny Brookwell, Gruffydd John, Ryan Williams, Sion Bradley (Cai Jones 82), Leo Smith, Sub not used: 24 Aled Williams.