Champions Mold Alex round off season with a win over runners-up Porthmadog

ARDAL NORTH WEST REPORT

Mold Alexandra 3 (Doherty 3, Carver 11, Nash 24)
Porthmadog 2 (Thomas 15, Rhys Alun 54)

Report: Mr Treflyn Jones (many thanks to Mr Jones for his excellent reports during the season which are invaluable to this website)

Mold ended the season like true champions with a win which meant they finished 11 points clear at the Ardal North West summit.

Also winners of the FAW Trophy, Michael Cunningham’s side were only denied a treble by a 1-0 loss to Caersws in the Ardal Northern League Cup final the previous weekend.

On Saturday, Alex took on a Porthmadog outfit already assured of second place and a play-off for promotion to the Cymru North with Caersws on May 28.

It was most fitting that the visitors, before the start of the contest, formed a guard of honour to applaud the worthy champions onto the pitch.

Mold were immediately onto the front foot and opened the scoring after only two minutes. Henry Carver sent in a low shot which keeper Bradley Roberts could only parry into the path of Dominic Doherty, who was left with a simple tap-in.

On 11 minutes, the hosts deservedly doubled their advantage when the very skillful and pacy Rhys Nash found himself behind Port’s back line and duly supplied Carver with a simple chance at the far post.

Port settled and on 15 minutes, Dewi Thomas latched on to a fine defence-splitting ball by Stuart Rogers and calmly slotted under the onrushing Elliot Quinlan to reduce the deficit.

Any thoughts of a quick away comeback were quashed on 24 minutes when a Mold attacker hit the bar with a fine header. The ball was swiftly recycled, however, and this time, from a right wing cross, the excellent Nash calmly headed into the corner of the net for 3-1.

Two fine saves from Roberts denied the champions a wider half-time lead.

Port, to their credit, started the second half determined to make their mark on a game which might well have run away from them at one stage.

Their passing became crisper and more accurate and, on 54 minutes, sub Rhys Alun latched on to a super diagonal long pass from Ifan Emlyn and placed the ball superbly beyond Quinlan’s reach to make it 3-2. Game on !

Barely a minute later, there occurred an incident which could have signalled a turning-point for the visitors when Mold were awarded a corner kick and, during something of a goalmouth scramble, referee Richard Wright brandished a straight red card at Alex’s towering centre back Jacob Wise for an alleged foul on his counterpart Sol Kempster.

With the champions down to 10 men, Port felt they could salvage something.

Several promising situations ensued from the Traeth men, especially from some probing moves initiated by the revived Gareth Jones-Evans and the equally hard-working Cai Parry and John Littlemore, but it was not to be. Final score 3-2.

Torf / Attendance: 286