Tuesday reports: Wins for Holywell Town, Denbigh Town, Porthmadog and Llanelwy

MATCH REPORTS – TUESDAY, AUGUST 17

NORTH EAST WALES FA CHALLENGE CUP

Gresford Athletic 1 (Alex Buxton 88)
Holywell Town 2 (Dylan Allshorn 48, Luke Edwards 57)
Report: Steve Roberts

Revenge for Holywell as they defeated a Gresford side which knocked them out of the Welsh Cup three days earlier.

Last Saturday’s first round tie at Halkyn Road saw the Wellmen lead 2-0 before a pair of late strikes delivered the Colliers a dramatic 3-2 victory.

On Tuesday night at the Hollingsworth Group Stadium, a place in the next stage of the NEWFA Challenge Cup was on the line.

Holywell made the early running, Dylan Allshorn’s low shot brilliantly saved by Ben Jones.

A few minutes later, Town’s Tony Roebuck rattled the crossbar. The ball fell to Ollie Buckley, but he was unable to control his shot.

Only a remarkable stop from Jones denied Luke Edwards before at the other end Joe Chaplin brought the best out of Terry McCormick, making his debut for the Wellmen. McCormick did well to thwart Chaplin in a ball chase soon after.

Town found the net a few minutes later but Ben Brierly’s effort was deemed to be from an offside position.

The second half was only a couple of minutes old when the Wellmen took a deserved lead. The dangerous Brierly fed the ball across to Allshorn, who controlled well and guided his shot into the back of the net.

Johnny Haseldin’s men went two-up on 57 minutes. Buckley was brought down on the edge of the box and a quickly taken free kick saw Edwards pick up the pass, control well, then drive a low shot into the bottom corner.

Gresford tried to get back into the game, Matthew Worrall foiled by McCormick before Edwards smacked the crossbar for the visitors.

Sub Jake Cooke had only been on the pitch a minute or so before he forced Jones to palm away for a corner. Another Cooke shot took a deflection and came back off the crossbar.

Substitute Alex Buxton notched a last-minute reply for Athletic, then an Edwards free kick struck the Gresford goal frame before late pressure from the hosts brought no reward.

ARDAL NORTH WEST

St Asaph City 0
Denbigh Town 3 (Mark Roberts 30, Sam Jones 52, Will Ashley 70)
Report: Stephen Whitfield

With matches in the Nathaniel MG Cup, Welsh Cup and FAW Amateur Trophy having taken up the entire first month plus of Denbigh Town’s 2021-22 season, it was not until Tuesday night that Dewi Llion’s side finally got to play their first league game of the campaign.

Town’s first-ever match in the tier 3 Ardal North West involved a short journey to St Asaph City, where the boys in red recorded a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Within the first 10 minutes Denbigh had two Stuart Jones headers on target, a shot from Mark Roberts saved by Luke Jones and a certain goal kicked off the line by Saints midfielder Brett Fitzsimons.

The first goal came on the half-hour after some good work on the right by Paul Fleming, who rolled the ball into a vacant area just in front of the home defence allowing Mark Roberts to run forward and fire first time low into the far right corner.

Saints now came into the game, but the visitors remained strong and just before half time they won a corner.

As the ball bounced around Stuart Jones had a good shot saved and Mo Barnett tucked the rebound away, but the officials had seen an offside and it was chalked off.

Ten minutes into the second half the hard-working Fleming hustled a defender before gaining possession and after shrugging off a challenge passed to centre forward Sam Jones.

The keeper was alert to the danger and Sam Jones had to swivel past his diving arms before scoring.

On 63 minutes Mark Roberts had the ball in the net but again there was an offside somewhere.

Will Ashley came on for Lee Davey and after a very short time he ran into the box as a ball came in and after just one touch drilled beyond the diving keeper to make the points safe.

Blaenau Amateurs 0
Porthmadog 4 (Ifan Emlyn Jones 5, Jamie McDaid 15, Matty Jones pen 52, Rhys Alun Williams 90)
Report: Rhydian Morgan

Two goals in the first 15 minutes from Jamie McDaid set up Porthmadog for an emphatic win on their first visit to Cae Clyd for a competitive fixture in many years.

After McDaid’s early double, the chances kept coming for Craig Papirnyk’s men.

Following good work by Matty Jones to rush the opposition keeper into a poor clearance, Julian Williams did well to get on the end of a McDaid cross and was unlucky to see his effort go just past the post.

Ifan Emlyn struck a post from 25 yards before the break which arrived with a 2-0 scoreline.

Seven minutes of the second half had been played when Port were awarded what seemed to be a rather soft penalty by the referee following some shirt pulling.

Regular penalty taker Matty Jones stepped up and scored to continue his sublime start to the season, notching up his fourth league goal and seventh in total.

McDaid had an opportunity to complete his hat trick when he was put through one-on-one, but having rounded the keeper, he saw his strike go wide.

There was one final moment of joy to come in stoppage time as substitute Rhys Alun Williams broke through on one final counter attack to finish impeccably and net his first goal of the season.

NORTH WALES COAST EAST FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

CPD Caer Clwyd 2 (Craig Lavery 18 & 42)
Llanelwy Athletic 5 (Joel Rowlands 5 & 75, Dan Price 39, Steve Kirk 77, Matthew Lewis 85)

Llanelwy made it six straight wins in Division One on Tuesday night but had to fight hard against an industrious Caer Clwyd outfit.

The game was one Athletic took at late notice but one they wanted due to a league fixtures backlog caused by Welsh Cup and FAW Amateur Trophy runs.

A fifth-minute goal from Joel Rowlands created through some lovely build-up play handed Llanelwy the lead, but Caer Clwyd responded well, equalising on the break after 18 through Craig Lavery.

More slick football led to Dan Price making it 2-1 to the visitors on 39 minutes, but Clwyd were level before the interval, Lavery finishing well again.

John Wood saved a Llanelwy penalty to ensure it remained two-apiece.

After the break both keepers got busier, Wood standing out for the hosts.

Clwyd had the upper hand up to the hour, after which Llanelwy upped a gear and began to show why they have become such experts at winning games.

In the last 15 minutes goals from Rowlands, Steve Kirk and Matthew Lewis clinched the honours for Sandy Malone’s men.

Malone said after the game: “We like to be as honest as possible and not be one of these teams who believe they were better than they actually were.

“Caer Clwyd played fantastic, caused issues and we certainly had to work hard in what was a below average performance from us until the last 25 minutes where we probably looked stronger than we were.

“We know sides will want to take our scalp in this league so we have got to be ready for these battles.”